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Sweetheart's life inspires service

Daphne Dodd, pictured here working at Nazareth House shop, has spent half her life volunteering for local organisations. Picture: Anita Kirkbright

There’s a poignant story behind Daphne Dodd’s connection with the Mission to Seafarers.

The great-grandmother began volunteering at the charity after her sailor husband passed away.

Tony Dodd was in the Royal Marines when Daphne met him while trying to catch a bus to the town of Antony in Cornwall, England.

“I was hunting for the town’s name on the timetable and this stranger asked if I was OK. I said, ‘I’m trying to find Antony’ and he said, ‘Well you’ve found him, here I am’,” the diminutive 84-year-old said.

So began a romance that led to marriage and eventually to Australia, a place Mr Dodd fell in love with after he left the Royal Marines and worked around the world for P&O.

Mr Dodd told his wife about Anglican Church charity ‘Mission to Seafarers’, after he visited some of its 260 Flying Angel Clubs in ports around the world.

The clubs provided a “home away from home” where seafarers could relax, make purchases and get in touch with their families.

“He said, ‘those Mission to Seafarers do a bloomin’ good job’ and when he died, I thought I’m going to work there in his honour,” Mrs Dodd said.

Since then, she has devoted more than 30 years of voluntary service to the organisation.

Geraldton Mission to Seafarers chaplain Bill Ross said Mrs Dodd was a cheerful volunteer with an “incredibly high” level of commitment who went far beyond the call of duty of a volunteer.

Mrs Dodd said she loves welcoming the seafaring visitors, making cups of tea or serving them in the mission’s shop, but its being able to offer access to the internet that gives her the greatest thrill.

“It’s marvellous to see them speak to their families, to see their faces as they speak to their wives.”

Mrs Dodd is a busy volunteer.

Until late last year, she worked in various roles at Theatre 8 repertory club, which she helped establish in 1974. But there’s no time to sit around.

She will continue to volunteer at MTS and at Nazareth House aged care facility, where she has helped for more than 20 years.