Birkenhead Rhapsody. Our charity shop volunteer Tricia absolutely strikes the right note

Retired music teacher, and Queen fan, Tricia McClure, (pictured on the left here) is genuinely full of the joys of spring.

If you’re shopping at our Birkenhead charity shop when Tricia is volunteering you’ll be greeted by her cheery smile and a willingness to help.

Her energy is infectious and, although she’s been retired since 2009, she likes to live life to the full.

Originally from St Helens, Tricia met future husband, Denis, from Bromborough Pool, while Ceilidh dancing at the old Irish Centre in Liverpool in the 1970s.

At the time Tricia was at Notre Dame teacher training college. By 1978 Tricia and Denis were married and within three years they’d moved permanently to the Wirral. Once third child, Jenni, following sisters Margaret and young Tricia, came along in the mid-80s she’d been teaching music and other subjects at both Our Lady of Mount Carmel secondary school and after at St Annes Primary school.

After many happy years at St Anne’s, Tricia then took on caring responsibilities for her own mum who had become ill. When her mum sadly died in 2000 she went back into teaching, at St Joseph’s primary school on Woodchurch Road, up until her well-earned retirement another nine years later.

Tricia was never likely to sit on her laurels, and she was soon giving back to her community by volunteering for the SCOPE charity shop for the next sixteen years. Magnificent!

So, it was our luck when, after thinking she might actually fully retire (no chance), she saw the sign in Wirral Hospice St John’s Birkenhead shop looking for new volunteers. She made an immediate impact with shop manager, Linda, and she joined us earlier this year.

Tricia says,

“I love volunteering at our shop in an environment and place I adore. Meeting new people, talking with all the customers, making them feel welcome and, best of all, knowing that we’re contributing towards raising vital funds for the hospice, is so rewarding.”

Back in her home life Tricia’s life is packed with musical pastimes. She began playing piano at eight, joined the church choir the same year, and was leading the choir at seventeen years of age.

Nowadays she plays piano with the Wirral Big Band, flute with both the Wirral Pop Orchestra and the Wirral Community Orchestra and regularly plays and sings at church services in St Anne’s and Prenton URC.  She also loves dancing, including once a month back at a Ceilidh night in Liverpool with Denis, a tradition they’ve kept from when they first met. Lovely.

As if all this isn’t enough, Tricia, always a thrill seeker, as a little girl she would head straight for the biggest ride at the fair, she loved The Big Dipper in Southport, has tackled zip wires in Wales, climbed a Via Ferrata (The Honister Via Ferrata Extreme) in the Lake District, enjoyed Go Ape (suspended on ropes and high bridges in the treetops), paraglided, and even completed a wing walk.

Her next goal? Acrobatic paragliding. WOW!!!

Family, friends, musical and dancing partners, volunteer colleagues and everyone at Wirral Hospice St John’s says ‘thank you so much for all you do for the hospice, Tricia, we’re very lucky to have you.