FOR 45 years she has helped run a vital community group aimed at helping elderly residents keep active.But now Evelyn Bullock is stepping down from her role as secretary for the Shamrock Club in Laxfield, a group for the over 60s.

FOR 45 years she has helped run a vital community group aimed at helping elderly residents keep active.

But now Evelyn Bullock is stepping down from her role as secretary for the Shamrock Club in Laxfield, a group for the over 60s.

Mrs Bullock, 82, started off helping out with the transport for the club in the mid 1960s, a decade after it had been launched.

She soon took up the role of secretary - a post she had filled with great dedication ever since until stepping down this month.

She said she was looking forward to attending the odd meeting every now and then and keeping in touch with the other members, but at 82 she was now looking to spend more time with her husband Philip, 84, who is currently not very well.

She said: “I will go back to meetings when I can. My husband is very poorly and I'm not very well now. There's no one left there from when I started. They're very kind to me and gave me a lovely party last week.”

The couple are also moving house soon - although they are staying in Laxfield - and Mrs Bullock said she thought it was the right time to step down.

The couple have been married for nearly 61 years and have two daughters, four grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Group member Pat Pryor, 80, said Mrs Bullock had shown a long-standing dedication to the organisation and had worked extremely hard over the years.

She said: “She dedicates a lot of her time to it. When she started she was a very busy farmer's wife with a family, but she still found the time.

“We hope that as long as her health will let her she will still call in and assist. We all love her very much.”