It’s hard to overstate the difference it makes to how well we can do our work when residents decide they will share some of their precious time with us. Their input is crucial to the development of the services that tenants really want and need.

We do all we can to return the favour, running training courses to help them feel confident enough to take on the kinds of challenge Sue has accepted on our behalf. They can learn, for instance, how to contribute in a professional way to forums, boards and steering groups, or master digital skills that are such an important part of modern communication.

Ask her what the point of all this has been, and this is her answer: “It felt like we were making a difference for the better, which is all I’ve ever wanted to do, really.”

Sue improves us and she empowers her fellow residents. Sue is the embodiment of that phrase ‘be the change you want to see’.

As time has gone by, her opinion and recommendations have come to be widely respected throughout NCH and many of her suggestions for improving service delivery have been acted on.

Sue was born in Nottingham and has lived in the city all her life. She has two grown-up children and two grandchildren – her grandson has autism and Sue holds parental responsibility for him; he lived with her before moving on to supported housing, and Sue still does as much as she can to help him out with the challenges he faces daily.

She was a lone parent and brought her children up by herself in a council home. When her children were small, a friend suggested that she go to a Gingerbread, the UK’s nationwide charity for single parent families. This was a game changer – days out with the group and enjoying Gingerbread holidays with other groups from around the country showed Sue and her family that there were many others in the same situation.

She also saw how powerful anyone could be if they were active in their communities. Sue was elected Chair of the Nottingham group and then of Gingerbread East Midlands. This gave her lots of opportunities to bring about positive change for others and to improve and develop her own skill base. When Gingerbread offered her a place on a Training the Trainer course, Sue passed with flying colours and went on to gain a City & Guilds qualification.

Sue would be the first to say that the same opportunities to make a difference are open to every NCH tenant.

Since taking on her first role with NCH, Sue has gone on to deliver many more, and she’s now a lynchpin of involvement. She’s a great ambassador for the organisation and much-loved by staff and tenants alike.  In NCH’s Tenant Awards 2020, she was the winner of the Outstanding Contribution to Social Housing Award.

She’s a passionate advocate of lifelong learning – last year she took part in the Clicksilver Connections programme which aimed to prevent isolation by developing digital skills. She set up her own Twitter account and learned how to use Microsoft Teams so she could continue to be involved with and advocate for NCH during the pandemic.

Over the past 18 months Sue’s osteoporosis has meant that she’s not been as mobile as she’d like and has had to rely on a wheelchair – although, in her own inimitable fashion, she has seen this as an opportunity to contribute to the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group, using her own experience to inform policies and procedures that will support others.

Sue is extraordinary. But I know she would be the first to say that the same opportunities to make a difference are open to every NCH tenant. Quite simply, she’s a joy to work with, always keen to get stuck in and make a difference, and despite her personal challenges, she always has time for others. I don’t know what we’d do without her

Congratulations, Sue – this recognition is no less than you deserve.