Although I am currently struck down with the dreaded lurgy, I am trying to look back on the more positive aspects of the past year!
2010 began with a cold snap and plenty of snow, but this didn’t stop myself and the South Hams team campaigning, leading Tony Barber to victory in the Ivybridge Filham by election.
From one extreme to the other, then I was off to a Tinchy Stryder concert for my sister’s birthday!
March held some sadness, as one of Camborne’s great men, Brian Lessiter, sadly passed away. The church was standing room only for his funeral. Despite suffering health problems, Brian was one of those wonderful people who always had a bright smile and and kind word for everyone.
As many of you know, I was the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for South West Devon for this year’s General Election.
It was a pretty busy time, combining full-time work in St Ives, with living in Camborne and being a Camborne Town Councillor, whilst travelling up to Plymouth for the candidacy role, whilst helping out Cornish colleagues such as Julia Goldsworthy, Terrye Teverson and Steve Gilbert campaign here in the county in their own campaigns.
I’m not going to pretend it wasn’t exhausting, but I had the great privilege to meet many new friends and colleagues from all political persuasions and walks of life. March, April and May saw me taking part in debates with the other prospective MPs, campaigning against an incinerator, meeting with local residents, businesses and charities and taking part in a charity 10k run. All in all, a wonderful experience.
Life got back pretty much to normal as May went on, although there was time to see Tom Stubbs elected to Truro City Council towards the end of the month, a hard-working Cornish lad who thoroughly deserved his win.
June passed by with enjoying the sunshine and getting fit for July’s Turkey Trot race with a group of friends. If you’re ever thinking of doing the race yourself, just be warned that it entails running up Merritt’s Hill in Illogan! Took a while to recover from that one.
At the end of July Mary McWilliams won a seat on Redruth Town Council, a great victory for a lovely lady.
August saw a staff social at my workplace at the fab Maize Maze in Hayle – hours of fun!
In September I began a management course with Truro College, on which I had the opportunity to meet businesswomen from all around Cornwall – a fantastic experience.
October saw more work-related successes – with the hotel scooping a sustainability award at the Cornwall Tourism Awards and I also got accepted on to the Tourism Business Excellence programme, where I’ll be learning tons of new skills to help tourism small businesses in the South West.
As 2010 drew to a close, notice of another election came with the resignation of the former councillor for Camborne North on Cornwall Council. This is the ward I represent on the Town Council and where I was elected on the former Kerrier District Council, so it seemed a logical step to bid to win the privilege of representing that area at county level.
This meant much battling through the snow, ice and chill in December to do as much campaigning as possible – many thanks to all those who have helped me so far and to all the people I met met during the campaign.
Polling Day is not until January 13th, so this final post of 2010 is to be continued…
Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year.