OSCAS WINNER SANDRA PLANNING TWO HOLIDAYS TO CELEBRATE RETIREMENT

Colleagues at the Heart of England Co-operative Society in Atherstone have bid a fond farewell to a popular member of staff who retired at Christmas.

Sandra Harris, aged 65, of Attleborough, Nuneaton, was Manager of the Society’s Atherstone Shopping Centre. She joined the Society almost 20 years ago.

One of Sandra’s career highlights came in October this year when she was crowned Employee of the Year in the Society’s prestigious annual OSCAS awards ceremony.

She fended off stiff competition from around 1,000 other employees to win the award.

Sandra, who retired on Christmas Eve, said: “I have had a fantastic time here at the Heart of England Co-operative Society and have made some really good friends along the way.

“I will miss the people I work with and of course the customers but I will make sure I keep in touch.”

To celebrate her retirement Sandra and her husband John have planned two holidays – one with their two grown up sons and their families, and the second on their own.

She said: “My husband John and I decided to take the family to Florida for two weeks in February so we are going to take our sons Dean and Jonathan, daughters-in-law Merry and Emma and grandsons Dominic and Christian to Disney. Dominic is eight and Christian is five so they will hopefully really enjoy it.”

She added: “As the Society and divisional Employee of the Year I received a total of £1,000 in Society vouchers. John and I reckoned we would need another quieter holiday to recover from the family holiday in Disney so we will use the vouchers towards 10 days or so in Italy probably, just the two of us.