A LOCAL volunteer at Pembrokeshire CAB has won a prestigious national volunteering award. Joyce Skelton has been presented with the 'Lifetime Achievement' award at the Citizens Advice Volunteer of the Year Awards for 2009. She was announced as the winner at the charity's annual conference in York on Tuesday.

Joyce helped found the bureau 31 years ago. She was originally a volunteer advisor and, although she retired from advising at the age of 70, she has stayed on in an admin capacity ever since.

Throughout her 31 years volunteering at the bureau, Joyce has raised the bureau's profile through talks, recruitment campaigns, external events, anniversary celebrations and keeping the bureau's history book.

Pembrokeshire CAB manager, Nicola Roguski, said: "This award is a great achievement and well deserved. Joyce has been one of the mainstays of the bureau and her long term commitment as a volunteer is an inspiration to everyone."

Joyce, aged 90, said: "I feel privileged and honoured to receive this award and it is with great regret that I am unable to receive it personally. If someone remains in a voluntary job for some time, it must largely be because they enjoy it and this has certainly been so in my case. Of course, there have been ups and downs, but the ups come out on top. Like the Ashes, it has been a team effort, with exceptionally friendly colleagues all deserving of mention and, unlike cricket, not even the weather preventing stoppages!"

Over 21,000 people a year volunteer with the Citizens Advice service and make up approximately threequarters of the work force. Last year, on average, volunteers gave a total of 121,743 hours a week of their time to Citizens Advice.

Volunteers within the Citizens Advice service undertake a variety of different roles. The majority of volunteers work as advisers (76 per cent), but other volunteer roles available in bureaux are: administrators, receptionists, IT co-ordinators, PR and marketing support, trustees, campaigners, fund-raisers, volunteer recruitment and social policy coordinators.

Bureaux are always on the lookout for new volunteer recruits and anyone interested can sign up at http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/join-us">www.citizensadvice.org.uk/join-us or call the Citizens Advice Volunteer hotline 08451 264264.