Doreen fights her own Poppy Appeal battle

Nov 3 2008 by Barry Gibson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Doreen fights her own Poppy Appeal battle

A POPPY Appeal collector was told to move from a busy town centre supermarket.

Doreen Patrick, 72, was amazed when a security guard ordered her not to stand next to the hand baskets at Sainsbury’s on Market Street.

The Netherton woman, whose father was wounded in the trenches during the First World War, said: “I’m very annoyed about this, I think it’s disgraceful.”

Doreen began collecting inside the town centre store at 10am on Tuesday. Half an hour later a security guard approached her.

She said: “He told me I was in the way of the baskets and would have to move somewhere else. I told him I wasn’t in anyone’s way and I refused to move.

“We started arguing and I told him that I wasn’t collecting for the good of myself, I was doing it for the guys out there risking their lives for you.

“I was so upset that I had to go and sit down for a few minutes. When I had calmed down I went back to collecting, but I didn’t want to stand close to the security guard in case there was another argument, so I stood in the doorway instead.”