Janet is at the heart of community spirit

She helps people whenever she can, is always raising money for charity and spends her Christmas Days cooking for people who can’t manage on their own.

Janet - who helps people fight work tribunals in court and stages protests to assist poeple in their battles - is 65 and lives in the village’s Broad Lane.

Her kind hearted community work all began when she began helping village residents fill in forms and get pension credit and benefits.

“There were so many people in distress over everyhting and they didn’t know who to turn to.

“I used to start looking things up and it just went form there. Then word spread and people were saying ‘if you want help just go to Janet’,” she said.

“If I find out someone who needs help I just want to be there,” she added

Such is the nature of Janet, she even made hospital patients cups of tea when she herself was undergoeing chemotherpy last year.

“Many of the chemo patients didn’t feel like getting up out of bed and the nurses were so busy so I used to just do it.

“I’d be in the kitchen holding my drip stand with one hand and making the tea with the other hand,” she said.

Following Janet’s ordeal with cancer she raised £3,000 for Nottingham City Hospital where she was treated.

The pensioner’s fundraising projects have also included raising enough money to buy a shetland pony for a boy who had Leaukemia.

Every December the kind-spirited villager hosts a festive party at the parish hall for 140 pensioners who are on their own.

They have a meal followed by crackers, a sing song and a visit from santa.

And she even spends her Christmas Day cooking a meal for those who can’t do it themselves.

“I cook and my husband goes round delivering them all,” said Janet.

Michelle Train is one of the many residents in Brinsley who has been touched by the help and support Janet has offered her.

She said her son was ‘left to die’ after being severaly beaten up by a gang of youths five years ago.

But the support Janet offered the family following the incident helped them all through it.

“She used to come round to see us and she was constantly on the phone to me,” said Michelle.

“She supported us for many months and just helped us all get through it.

“We have remained very good friends. I see what she does in the community and I just think it’s amazing. She is there to support anyone in our village.

“My son David holds her in very high regard.”

Not long ago a good friend of Janet’s lost his wife.

When she was very ill in bed, the couple did not feel they were getting the help they needed, so Janet took the matter into her own hands.

“I said we’re not going to give up I will go outside protesting. I went outside social services protesting about him having no help for his wife who was dying.

“And by dinner time they had all the help they needed,” she said.

Janet said it was other people’s gratitude that made her want to help others.

“When people say ‘thank you’ it makes my day and that’s my enjoyment with it. It makes me happy and it’s made them happy.”

neaa 19-12-12 be 8 - Janet Enever making 25 Christmas dinners.

NEAABE120210a3 - Janet receiving her Eastwood and Kimberley Advertiser New years honours 2012.