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15 Aug 2025 Community

Meet Linda The Legend Behind The Kirkwood’s Book Room Transformation

Linda Kitson has become a cornerstone of the volunteer team with The Kirkwood.

With a lifelong passion for literature and an unshakeable desire to help others, she’s spent the past year transforming the hospice’s once overwhelming book room into a beautifully curated library of treasures all in support of the charity’s vital work.

“I've been here just over a year,” Linda says. “I saw the advert for the books. I have known about The Kirkwood for a long time. I've had friends who have been cared for by staff from The Kirkwood in the community as well as actually at the Dalton site. And I wanted to help.”

While Linda was already giving time to her local library, she felt something more meaningful was calling her: “You know, I do volunteer for the library, but the library doesn't hold my heart as much as this does.”

When she first visited The Kirkwood in May 2024, she was only shown a set of disorganised shelves: “They were all higgledy piggledy and crammed together,” she remembers. “The first thing I did was tap that shelf, tidy it all up, and stack it into some sort of order.”

It wasn’t until several months later that she was introduced to the real challenge: the overflowing book room.

“In September, Gary the manager took me into this book room and I went, ‘Oh no,’ because there were bags and boxes piled high. You couldn’t even get into the room. It just was, wow.”

Linda had intended to volunteer for just two hours a week. That quickly changed: “It got to six hours on a Tuesday, then six hours on a Tuesday and Wednesday. It just felt like I was never, ever going to achieve sorting it.”

Despite being told, “You’ll never sort that room,” Linda took it as motivation: “I said, ‘Challenge accepted.’”

Today, the book room stands transformed thanks to Linda and the team, including fellow volunteers Eve, Sophie, Jackie, and Carol: “I don’t know about being a boss,” she says with a smile, “but certainly I’m the one that kind of organises it a little.”

Linda’s love of books goes back to childhood: “I’ve always loved books. I’ve read since before I went to school. I wanted to be a librarian.”

That dream was dashed by a careers advisor in 1972 who told her: “Girls like me would end up in factory shops or offices and pregnant by the time I was 17.”

She replied, “Mr. Parrot, you are wasting my time.”

Though she didn’t become a librarian, Linda built a successful career, earning degrees in Human Resources and Health, Safety & Environmental Management, working for 50 years before retiring and returning to her first love: books.

“I read about 100 to 150 books a year,” she says. “I take a Kindle everywhere I go, but I’ve got books coming out of everywhere at home. Last time I moved, I had 32 big boxes!”

For Linda, physical books still have magic: “Books, physical books, they’re a joy. That’s what I find here, these books are a joy. I deal with all the older books, the ones before the ISBN numbers. Just every one I pick up, I find some joy in it.”

She’s uncovered some incredible finds, too: “I found holy bibles with Victorian families written down, complete with photographs. Artist books. One of the Isle of Skye sold within two days for £50. Just today we found a feasibility study from 1905 on the Channel Tunnel, we’ve listed it for £199!”

Linda’s favourite book of all time?: “Jane Eyre by the Brontës,” she says without hesitation. “I read that at 14 years old and I was completely gripped.”

But it’s the deeper purpose behind her volunteer work that drives her most: “I feel like I belong. I feel really welcome. I feel like I’m doing something good. Every book sold means someone else gets care they wouldn’t otherwise have. Whatever we sell here makes that care possible.”

And with Linda Kitson quietly leading the charge, every page turned helps write a new chapter of hope with The Kirkwood.

If like Linda you would like to volunteer for The Kirkwood click the link HERE

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