Hartlepool Poppy Appeal leader's pride for her late dad as town passes £1m milestone
Hartlepool Poppy Appeal has passed an incredible £1 million milestone under organiser Sian Cameron after she took on the role from her late dad.
Sian followed in dad Ian Cameron’s footsteps in leading the town’s annual appeal following his death in 2010.
Friends and family thought it would only be for a year.
But, driven by a determination to do her dad proud and ongoing desire to help a good cause, she remains at the helm 15 years later.
Last year, the people of Hartlepool raised £74,000 for the Royal British Legion to support ex-servicemen and women and their families.
And it meant the town has now passed the £1m since 2003 when Ian took up the role.
Sian, 42, said: “It wasn’t until a few years ago that I started to notice we were edging closer to the £1m."
With no direct links to the armed forces, no one knows why taxi operator Ian chose to lead Hartlepool’s Poppy Appeal other than it was the type of man he was.
In his seven years working with the charity, he took the town’s collection total from £13,700 in his first year to £43,300 in 2009.
Even before taking over from her dad, Sian was continually by his side helping.
Come the lead up to Remembrance Day, her house in Wolviston is piled high with boxes of paper flowers, waiting to be sorted and delivered.
But Sian, who is also chair of the Hartlepool branch of the Royal British Legion, stressed the process is a team effort and couldn’t be done without the group of die-hard volunteers, and the generosity of all who give to the appeal every year.
She said: “There’s a sense of pride when you look around on Remembrance Sunday and think every poppy on show here has probably come from one of the boxes in the town.
“The number of people I have the privilege to spend time with is amazing.”
As for the town raising £1m, she knows Ian would be proud of that.
When she isn’t selling poppies, Sian is commercial operations and compliance manager at NETA Training, in Stockton, where colleagues right up to the director help out in the busy run up to November.