I was a nurse by profession, forced by adversity into business and now a pensioner with a very low boredom threshold. I retired as Managing Director of Musbury Fabrics and still a chronic workaholic, work full time for my charitable interests. Founder Chair of Rossendale Hospice, Rossendale Area Board of Young Enterprise and co-founder with Barry Payton of Haslingden Community Link and Children’s Centre as a pre-cursor to our vision of Rossendale as a Centre of Healthy Living. The advent of PEER Support and Enterprise Facilitation™ brought the goal nearer and defined the missing link. I became a founder member but also our first client. The urgent necessity for social enterprise to sustain community and charitable projects was becoming more pressing. We needed something that would assimilate the acumen, skill, experience and altruism of local business to develop sustainable enterprise geared to health and economic regeneration in Rossendale. The project was to set up and manage socially useful small businesses that would offer opportunities for co-operative working leading to independent business ownership. With the help of PEER we succeeded and in Rossendale now have more social enterprises than anywhere else in Lancashire.
I am proud of and enjoy my five children, ten grandchildren and one great grandchild. I do try to retire but keep finding new and interesting projects. Even reading and Sudoku pall after a bit. I have made many friends and gain great pleasure, fun and satisfaction from what I do.
Dorothy is a true Representative of the Broad Diverse Membership of PEER and as a Founder Member helps to keep the ‘core principles’ to support the Communities of Rossendale to help themselves to the benefit of all.