Nine years ago we moved to Shadwell from Moortown. We had lived in our previous house for 36 years. We met some wonderful people in Shadwell and were encouraged to become involved with the independent library.

I’d worked latterly with people with dementia and my mother also had Alzheimer’s. I had a couple of meetings to get volunteer support and started Sweet Memories, a memory cafe in the library.

Although there was some opposition I started the Hardback Cafe on two days a week as a community cafe. People thought that the cafe would lose money but the opposite has happened, with the cafe going from strength to strength. The money supports the running of the library and has become a hub in Shadwell.