Retired carer is Dewsbury's Yorkshire hero

Margaret Whiteley, 74, collects shopping for them, cooks meals, drives them to hospital appointments and pays social calls, despite having suffered ill health herself.

The retired Kirklees Council home carer, of Coniston Road, was nominated as a Yorkshire Day hero by her sister Joan Pickles.

She sits with her 89-year-old neighbour Betty, a cancer patient, for two hours every day to make sure she doesn’t feel lonely.

“She’s always helping people and looking after them - she deserves a medal. She’s a marvellous person, she does all the shopping for Betty. A lot of them wouldn’t know what to do without her,” said Joan.

“She does everything, even though she’s not very well herself - she does all the gardening too.”

Margaret is a keen supporter of cancer charities as her daughter has been treated for lymphona. She spent 30 years working with home care service users in the Dewsbury and Earlsheaton areas before retirement.

She lives with her husband Peter and has two children, Sean and Julie, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.