A VOLUNTEER tea lady has been praised for her work at a Wirral health centre.

Each week Babs Blaine, 83, works between six and 10 hours at Victoria Central Health Centre's tea bar in Wallasey.

Babs is secretary for the centre's League of Friends and part of a team selling refreshments to patients. She often fills in for other volunteers who cannot make their session.

Her contribution was recognised by NHS Wirral at its annual awards ceremony in Port Sunlight Village last week.

Babs said: "The success of the tea bar falls on the shoulders of the team of volunteers - they work so hard - they should be getting the credit not me.

"The support from the League of Friends has been excellent.

"They have all worked very willingly - giving up their time - they give a lot of hours.

"I was quite surprised to have won this award but highly delighted that the hard work has been recognised."

The evening turned out to be a triple celebration, for Babs and husband Fred - who have a combined age of 173 – are heavily involved with raising cash for the League of Friends.

For as well as Babs' honour, the couple also received a grant for almost £1,000 for the League of Friends to spend on kitchen equipment for the tea bar.

Fred was also given a surprise 90th birthday celebration at VCHC where almost 50 people turned up.

Frances Street, Chairman of NHS Wirral, said: "I would like to congratulate Babs and all our NHS volunteers who have kindly given more than 27,000 hours of their time during the last year.

"It's kind people like Babs who really make a difference.

"I was also pleased to hear the volunteers were awarded £954 through NHS Wirral's and Wirral Council's small grants initiative programme – this is to be spent on upgrading a variety of kitchen equipment to be used at Victoria Central Health Centre for patients."