OBE Helen dispels WI's 'knitting' image (From Warrington Guardian)

OBE Helen dispels WI's 'knitting' image

SHE'S rescued Tony Blair from hecklers and appeared in the smash movie hit Calendar Girls.

Now, the incoming president of Whitley Women's Institute has been awarded an OBE in the New Year's honours list.

Helen Carey, aged 62, and former chairman of the National Federation of the Women's Institute, said: "I am very pleased for the whole organisation in Cheshire and that the things we do are recognised."

The forthright WI champion would love to change the public's perception of the WI, which she thinks is wrong: "It's a shame that people say the WI is just jam and Jerusalem. It's not all about knitting, you know!"

Helen paid tribute to Warrington's only other award winner, actor Pete Postlethwaite, who is also made an OBE, saying: "He's a great actor. I love his work."

Helen, who lives in the village, had a small role in the revealing film Calendar Girls, about the Rylstone WI, which stripped for a charity calendar.

The script, incidentally, was by Warrington writer Tim Firth.

"It was fun to meet all the girls. They were all nice, strong women," she said.

When the Prime Minister received a slow handclap from a 10,000-strong crowd at the organisation's national conference at Wembley in 2000, Helen was the first to stand up and quell dissenters.