AS 80 years-old Joan Kavanagh paid her respects at Leigh's war memorial, she reflected on she and her BICC colleagues' fund-raising role for the war effort which received special recognition.
For four years during the war she was employed making cables and wire at the Leigh factory and during this time she and two other colleagues raised money for Prime Minister Winston Churchill's wife's Aid for Russia fund.
Mrs Kavanagh, who lives in Leigh, received a hand-written letter from the Mrs Churchill thanking them for the donation of seven pounds, five shillings and two pence.
Dated February 1942, and with the postmark 10, Downing Street, London, Mrs Churchill wrote: "From all over the country similar donations are reaching me. They show the vivid and intense concern of the citizens of Great Britain for the freedom of the Russian people and for the suffering so silently and unflinchingly borne by them. I send you my heartfelt thanks for your help."
The note was signed 'yours sincerely, Clementine S. Churchill' and is one of Mrs Kavanagh's proud possessions.
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