Gobsmacked!

Woman of Oldham Barbara Dignan (right) received the Oldham Chronicle Rose Bowl and a bouquet of flowers from Anne Sankaran, chairman of the Woman of Oldham Committee

Great-gran’s surprise as she is named Woman of the Year

GREAT-grandmother Barbara Dignan was “gobsmacked” to be named Oldham’s Woman of the Year for 2009.

Mrs Dignan (73) from Royton, has been a stalwart of the hospital service Radio Cavell and the new Oldham Community Radio since their inception.

She has done countless hours of voluntary work for charity, including the Children of Chernobyl, Oldham Family Crisis Centre, and through the Inner Wheel.

She was presented with the Oldham Chronicle crystal bowl at the White Hart, Lydgate, yesterday, and told the 220 guests at the annual lunch: “I am beyond words. I really, really didn’t expect this.

“I have been sitting here thinking ‘who would I nominate?’

“This is out of the blue, I’m shaking and shivering.”

Later Mrs Dignan, who is a mother of four, and has five grandchildren and one great-granddaughter, said: “I have been coming to the lunches for several years.

“But I had no idea it was me. I even interviewed the Woman of Oldham Committee secretary Janet Larton a few weeks ago, and asked if she could give us an idea who might win, but she said it was a secret. No wonder. I was gobsmacked.”

The annual charity lunch is in its 17th year of awards, and this year’s recipient is the Victoria Breast Unit at the Royal Oldham Hospital.

Tracey Knuckey, from the hospital trust, told guests how the new unit had helped shorten diagnosis times from six weeks to two days. And the Victoria Breast Unit Appeal would provide a new conservatory where patients could wait in comfort and privacy.

The lunch was a sell-out in less than a week, with guests including the Mayoress of Oldham, Councillor Kay Knox, and the chairmen of Shaw and Crompton, and Saddleworth, parish councils, Councillors Marie Wiswell and Alma McInnes.

The Woman of Oldham committee, which organises the lunch, in aid of an Oldham charity every year, has so far raised more than £61,000 for good causes.

Last year’s charity, the Oldham Cancer Support Centre, was presented with a record breaking £10,000.