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She’s 81 … and has absolutely no intention of retiring.
Meet Kath Bridge who has worked for insurance company NFU Mutual in Honley for 50 years and is now in the office two days a week where she makes sure all insurance renewals reach their customers.
Kath has been married to Keith for almost 60 years – their diamond wedding will be in October this year – and the couple live in Honley. They have three children and seven grandchildren.
Kath revealed that retirement is simply not on her mind.
“I will continue to come in for as long as possible as I enjoy it too much to give up,” she said. “It’s gone far too fast. I honestly can’t believe it’s been 50 years. I’ve enjoyed my work and being organised and I love all our lovely customers.
“Over the years we’ve had great trips to London and enjoyed our annual dinner dances where I could socialise with our customers.”
When Kath started with NFU Mutual on February 24, 1974, the business had one agent, Tim Coy, and the set-up was in Tim’s garage in Holmfirth where she worked from makeshift desks made up of old sideboards and worktops. Kath’s work involved using an old manual typewriter in her fingerless gloves.
After several years in the garage the business had grown dramatically so Tim and Kath moved to a larger office in Thongsbridge where they went from an old cardboard box filing system to metal cabinets with professional suspension files!
In December 1991 Robert Nobles joined the growing team as an agent alongside Tim and the office administration jumped from pen and paper to computers, photocopiers and the latest technology – a fax machine.
The following year they moved to a larger office in the centre of Honley village where Kath moved with the times and new technology, never failing to do the daily back up onto the ‘floppy disks.’
The NFU Mutual agency moved to its present base in Cowley House on Queens Square Business Park in Honley in 2006 and has rapidly grown over the years to employ several members of staff. Tim Coy retired in 2010 with Matthew Gummerson joining Robert Nobles as an agent in 2011.
Kath regularly enjoys the team building outings and is one of its most competitive members. When it comes to ten pin bowling she’s known as the strike queen!
Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content and copywriting.
