Irene

Irene has been with Pecan since the beginning

‘The first time I was asked to lead a group I nearly had a heart attack.’

Irene was one of our first trainers. A daughter of Dublin, she moved to London in the late 1980s, feeling God’s call to work with people on the margins.

She met our founder Simon Pellew, and was soon on staff – being asked to lead training courses.

‘I’d never stood up in front of people before,’ she recalls. ‘I was scared stiff. But, within weeks of getting to know the people, I loved it.’

Irene and the team filled the courses by door knocking on the North Peckham estates. One client they met this way was Ron.

Ron had been drinking heavily, sliding into depression after his wife and kids left him. He’d barely left the house in a year.

‘He came in looking wasted and down,’ Irene recalls. ‘But as he started to socialise, he came to life. We used to have coffee together before we started. One day he arrived with a big grin on his face and said, “For the first time in nine months, I ran up my stairs at home.” ’

Around twenty years later he reappeared in the Pecan offices clutching a £10 note. Seeing Irene he said, ‘I thought it was you,’ and handed her the money. ‘When I was on the course and my kids were visiting,’ he explained, ‘I had no money for food. You gave me £10. I’ve been waiting all these years to pay you back!’

Irene still works for Pecan, and she is still as enthusiastic as ever. ‘This is not just a job,’ she says, ‘this is about serving.’