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• Lollipop lady Joan clocks up 40 years

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Knowsley lollipop lady Joan McLoughlin is celebrating 40 years of making sure local children cross the road in safety.

Colleagues have calculated Joan has so far walked around 7,500 miles helping pupils from St Aloysius in Huyton safely across the road – that’s more than the distance from Knowsley to New York and back!

She works the Oak Tree crossing on Liverpool Road and has had hardly any time off sick in the past four decades. In fact, she is now crossing the grandchildren of some of the pupils she first crossed over in the 1960s.

And it is not just on the crossing that she lends a helping hand.

She regularly cooks and cleans for her 95-year-old neighbour, insisting on washing his net curtains in “Dolly Blue”. When asked why she helps him, Joan who is in her late-60s herself says, “Because he is old.”

On the refuse collection days on Liverpool Road, Joan returns the wheelie bins after they have been emptied to the houses of people who are getting a bit frail.

She also regularly takes residents at the Christopher Grange care home for Holy Communion at the nearby church.

At a special presentation at St Aloysius School to mark her long service, Joan was presented with flowers and gifts by Peter Macleod, executive director of the Knowsley Council’s Directorate of Neighbourhood Delivery, which has responsibility for school patrols.

Peter said: “Joan is our longest serving member of the School Crossing Patrol service and it is a great achievement to have worked for 40 years ensuring the safety of generations of children crossing over what is an extremely busy dual carriageway.

“The importance of this work carried out by Joan and others like her cannot be underestimated.

“We wish to extend our congratulations and thanks to Joan for her long service and hope that she will continue to be an employee of Knowsley Council for a long time to come.”

PHOTO: Lollypop lady Joan McLoughlin celebrates 40 years on the school crossing with children from St Aloysius school, Huyton.

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