Central England Co-op Funeralcare colleagues across Peterborough going above and beyond to support families during Coronavirus outbreak

Posted by james brindle | Published: 11/05/2020


Stories of funeral home colleagues in Peterborough going above and beyond to support families during difficult times have been shared to highlight their role as key workers during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.

While it has undoubtedly been a challenging period for colleagues at Central England Co-op Funeralcare, the teams have been working tirelessly to ensure the families are supported as fully as possible and treated with the upmost compassion.

During Dying Matters Week (May 11-17) Central England Co-op Funeralcare is shining a light on some of the key workers in their funeral teams who have been going the extra mile to support families and to ensure the Society can provide outstanding service in challenging circumstances.

Among those funeral heroes are Funeral Directors Kelly Sciara, Samantha Hampson and Rebecca Whomes, as well as Senior Funeral Service Assistant Leigh Ann Wiseman.

They have been commended for volunteering to support the operations team if needed during these challenging times working in an environment they had not previously experienced.

The four colleagues undertook the necessary training and have all worked hard and supported the operations team immensely, doing something which took them well out of their comfort zone to support not only families, but also their colleagues

Each of the Funeral Director’s highlighted continue to do the day job of managing three funeral homes each, with Leigh Ann overseeing a large fleet of vehicles but they still found time to support the operations team and will continue to do so when needed.

The four colleagues have also worked in the Society’s Peterborough care centre over the bank holidays to ensure that families have someone to support them during this difficult period of time and have shown themselves to be multi-skilled and such an asset to the profession.

Central England Co-op Funeralcare’s Peterborough operations team has also been praised for their tireless efforts to overcome the immense challenges posed by the current situation to support services and families.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the impact of COVID-19 following the passing of a loved one, they have attended to people who have either passed or who are suspected of having COVID with the greatest of respect taking care to reassure families at this difficult time.

The colleagues have cancelled holidays to support operations and worked tirelessly to support all of the funeral homes across the area.

Niki Roberts, Senior Funeral Director, said: “It never ceases to amaze me how our colleagues will truly go above and beyond to ensure the families we support receive the most compassionate and respectful service possible.

“That level of service has rarely been as important as it is now, and I am so proud of all the Central England Co-op Funeralcare teams for how they are serving their communities during this unprecedented period and to how they have adapted so quickly to unprecedented and rapid changes in the funeral industry.

“Those colleagues who have been highlighted showcase the very best in co-operative values but there are countless others across our teams who are equally worthy of recognition.”

People can keep up to date with how Central England Co-op is responding to the Coronavirus by visiting www.centralengland.coop/updates

 

 

Notes to editors

About Central England Co-operative

Central England Co-operative is one of the largest independent retail co-operative societies in the UK with interests in food, funeral, floral, travel and property investment.

Co-operatives have always been there for their communities; they were formed to protect them and help them flourish. 

Our 7,900 colleagues serving our Members and customers work hard to ensure that co-operative values, principles and spirit flow through everything we do to help support and improve our local communities.

Owned by hundreds of thousands of Members, we have over 430 trading outlets across 16 counties including West Midlands, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. 

We are proud of our reputation for ethical business practices and corporate responsibility.

We invest a percentage of our trading profit into local communities through our Community Dividend Fund scheme, have donated over £1.3 million to our corporate charity partner Dementia UK and also operate a pioneering food redistribution partnership with FareShare Midlands so unsold food goes to those in need.

Visit www.centralengland.coop for more information or follow us on Facebook or Twitter using @mycoopfood

Press office contacts: Rob Smyth and James Brindle

Phone - 01543 421390

Email - publicrelations@centralengland.coop