WE ARE SHEFFIELD: '˜Outsider' leaves remarkable impact on adopted home

Ever since he arrived in Sheffield from Hull in 1992, the 80-year-old has felt the urge to help out.

He says he first ventured into volunteering because he wanted to give something back to society.

But over the years he says he has learned to value it as much for what it gives him as for the help he provides to others.

“It keeps my mind occupied. Once the brain box goes it is time to pop your clogs,” he says.

After starting at the British Trust of Conservation Volunteers, he worked at the Hillsborough Community Development Trust for five years, where one of his jobs was to clean the toilets.

After that it was the Southey Training and Resource Centre, followed by a stint as a community representative on the board of SOAR – Southey and Owlerton Area Regeneration.

Cyril says he has never been a practical man but give him some paperwork and a phone and he is ‘in his element’.

“I was a documents clerk when I was doing my national service,” he says.

“So that’s where the paperwork comes from I think. At Southey I started as an office boy in my mid-50s and I ended up as chairman of the board.”

The awards he has won are proudly displayed on his windowsill as well as pictures of himself posing alongside BBC Look North presenter Harry Gration and local MP Gill Furniss.

However, he thinks those that offer their time and effort free of charge should be better recognised than they currently are.

“Sometimes people do take it for granted. But a little thank you goes a long way,” he says.

For the last two years, Cyril has lived at the Meadows ‘extra care’ facility in Shirecliffe.

He says he did not want to come at first but it ended up being the best decision he ever made.

“You see all those pictures of people falling asleep in these sort of places but the staff here are lovely,” he says.

After learning of his helpful nature, other residents now ask him to write letters for them – and he also calls the bingo.

Lately, he has become a regular contributor to The Star’s letters page where he is known for his strongly pro-Brexit views.

“I like the cut and thrust of debate,” he says.

But that does not mean the volunteering has stopped.

Now into his ninth decade, he shows little sign of slowing down and is still taking on new projects and roles in his local community

As well as working at the LEAF allotment project in Norwood, Cyril is also on the committee at a local scout group and is currently helping an amateur boxing club achieve charitable status.

For an ‘outsider’, as he puts it, he has certainly left his mark on his adopted home city.