Joyce Khan will be leaving The Fed after 26 years of dutiful service. She shares her memories of her time with the organisation.
The year that Joyce Khan first joined the Fed, Wannabe by the Spice Girls was blasting on the radio, Braveheart won Best Picture at the Oscars, and the world was astounded by the birth of the first ever clone, Dolly the Sheep. With nearly 30 years of service at the organisation under her belt, Joyce didn’t start in the marketing role which she has had for 17 years, but in social care instead: “I joined in October 1996,” she told us. “Originally my job was Carers’ Support Worker. I was essentially like an unqualified social worker. I was supporting people in the Salford community who were looking after a family member and struggling. I did that until June 2006, and then I just hit a wall because I was like a sponge for other people’s sorrow. I have such admiration for my social work colleagues who have been in the job a lot longer than I stayed there.”
Though Joyce decided to move on from the social care aspect of the job, the Fed didn’t want to lose her entirely: “I was being managed by Mark Cunningham at the time, who’s now our Chief Executive, and he was very supportive. Itookapuntona10houraweekjobin Fundraising and Marketing. That job just grew, and I became the Marketing Officer, and then we split the team, and I became Marketing and Communications Manager.”
Throughout her long career she’s seen the organisation go through a lot of changes along the way to becoming the powerhouse it is today: “When I started out, about 30 odd people worked at the Fed, and we were working from office in Holland Road in Crumpsall. Just as I joined, we did a merger with The Benevolent, and became what I term ‘the old Fed’. It was still a very small organisation, but already a professional one with a social work team.
But if you look at the Fed now, it’s a beacon organisation. In the run up to the election we got singled out for political visits. We were visited by Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron recently. They often say: ‘We can’t go to the North West and not visit the Fed.’”
Stepping down after so long is bittersweet for Joyce, but it’s not the last that the Fed has seen of her: “I’ve got very mixed feelings. I work with just gorgeous people. And I love seeing them. But I know for myself that it’s the right time to go. And I also know that I intend to be here a lot, visiting the third floor offices, and helping out on a volunteer basis.”
Over the years, Joyce has helped a great deal of people, both directly and indirectly, and it’s this which stands out for her: “I was very proud of the work that I did when I was working in the community. Of the comfort that I gave people and that I helped people who were living under a lot of strain. We’ve
also done some amazing fundraisers over the years in the days when we used to have guest speakers. Some people were really unpleasant when they weren’t putting on their public front, and then some people, such as Joanna Lumley, were an absolute delight. We also used to make videos of the dinner and to see the audience be affected by something that you’ve been involved in and helped to craft is incredible.”