93-year-old widower Trevor Hughes has shopped at our Dunstable store every week since it opened in 2001 and says our colleagues there are like a family to him.
Trevor has been blind for the last 11 years, so Michelle Ruffles (right in the picture above), Debbie Scott (second from the right) and other colleagues guide him round the store, explain special offers and cooking instructions, before taking him to the store's cafe when he's finished.
He said: "I've been going to the store every Saturday morning since it opened – I've only missed one morning when there was a lot of snow. In that time I've had quite a few people help me.
"I call them my family. When I go in I'm greeted with hugs – it's lovely. They take me out to dinner once a month and they're really, really lovely people.
"I tell them what I want and they get it for me, and they tell me how many minutes it needs in the microwave and the date it expires. They're really helpful."
Michelle, who's worked at the store for 16 years, has formed a really close friendship with Trevor and helps him every week. Trevor says he can remember what Michelle looks like from before he lost his sight.
She said: "I started helping him years ago and then Debbie, who works on home shopping, started helping him too. He's a lovely man – very friendly and chatty.
"He tells us what he wants. He'll say 'I'd like a beef roast dinner and a chicken roast dinner, and put a tear in the chicken one', which is how he tells them apart.
"We also tell him the expiry dates, and about special offers, so he can save money. He's quite independent, he just needs a bit of a helping hand with certain things.
"Debbie and her partner take him for a drink in the cafe after his shop, and we also take him for lunch to different places in the town.
"He only lives round the corner from me, so I often go round to have a coffee and a bit of cake with him. He tells me all about his wife and stories from the old days."
Trevor had glaucoma just after he retired and had several operations before finding out that he had macular degeneration. Despite this, he remains active and independent.
He said: "I have a lady who helps me round the house, doing a little bit of cleaning and hoovering two days a week, but I do a lot of it myself.
"I don't have a guide dog – I've got my stick."
Trevor has one daughter, Carol, who lives in America. His late wife Queenie died in 2005. He has six grandchildren and is also a great-grandad. He is originally from south Wales and moved to Dunstable in the 1960s. Before he retired he worked in transport, then at a printer's.
Michelle said: "Funnily enough, it turns out that we worked at the same place at the same time. My first job when I was 16 was at Waterlow and Sons which was a printers in Dunstable. He worked there too at the time although he was coming up to retirement."
