Who We Are – Lyne

Lyne Taylor is one of the many colleagues who stepped up during the Covid-19 pandemic. Lyne was glad to be able to help out collecting for her local food bank - and says she wouldn’t hesitate to do it all over again.

Our Who We Are campaign celebrates people like Lyne - key workers connecting communities, before and during the Covid-19 pandemic – and beyond as well. Over the coming months, we’ll be recognising people at the heart of our business, across the pipeline, as they describe who they are in their own words.

We want to receive nominations from around the Group for deserving colleagues to be recognised in this way. Send yours to groupcommunications@royalmail.com

Look out for coverage of Who We Are on RMtv, in Courier, your unit’s tv screens and, of course, here on myroyalmail.com

Lyne Taylor, known as ‘Saint Lyne’ by her delivery office manager, Kenny Pattison, went above and beyond to help her local community during the Covid-19 pandemic – delivering post as part of her day job and collecting items for her local food bank after work

‘According to my Fitbit, as a postwoman, I walk around 10 miles per day, averaging 22,000 steps!’ said Lyne. ‘I started work March 2009, originally on a one-day contract, 4.30 hours.

‘To be a good postie, I believe you need to have the ability to work as part of a team as well as comfortably by yourself. You need to be cheerful and pleasant and understand that you’re the only person some people see all day, so you need compassion.

‘Weather is the biggest battle, and you need to dig deep at times to get through the days it’s lashing down with rain.

‘My first day was 9 March 2009 and I remember it distinctly as it was very cold with hailstones bouncing down.

‘I feel proud to work for Royal Mail, I enjoy my work and routine and feel part of the wider community whilst out delivering.

‘I’m not sure I’d actually give up my role as a postwoman; maybe if I lived nearer the bigger sorting offices I would enjoy sorting parcels and post into various locations/ offices and seeing that side of the job.

‘During Covid-19, I came across a plea on social media from the Alnwick food bank, who, because of the pandemic and hundreds of local people being unable to work due to businesses being forced to close or being furloughed, suddenly found themselves struggling to not only pay bills, but to find money for food.

‘It really touched home - this could easily have been me if I had a different job.

‘I counted myself extremely lucky - and still do - during this pandemic that basically, nothing changed for me. But I had an overwhelming feeling that I wanted to help the people who were struggling.

‘I started a collection at work and met with Clive the food bank manager. I quickly realised our small office helping out was hardly scratching the surface and realised I had a perfect way to get more people involved.

‘I’m born and bred in Shilbottle, and that’s also my delivery round. Shilbottle has a community page on Facebook, so I put a shout out to all my customers for help, for any spare tins, pasta, toiletries etc. I was overwhelmed at the response! I collected bags and bags of items each day for over six weeks. I filled the Royal Mail van up every Wednesday after work with all the collections and dropped them off at the food bank.

‘In the three months of lockdown, the food bank made 1,200 parcels - that’s over 16,000 individual items; way over what they did in the whole of last year. If we get a second wave, I won’t think twice to help those who need it again.’