Who We Are – Julia

Throughout the pandemic, Warminster postwoman, Julia Roberts has been raising money for charity, and helping to make the life of a very special six-year-old girl a little happier.

Our Who We Are campaign celebrates our key workers - connecting communities, before and during the Covid-19 pandemic – and beyond as well. We’re 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 communications@royalmail.com.

‘During the first lockdown, one of my colleagues and I tried to bring some fun into people’s lives by dressing up in aid of Cancer Research,’ said Julia. ‘My costumes included: an explorer, Private Widdle from Carry on up the Khyber, a Roman centurion, nun, First World War nurse, a bee, and a hotdog! The costumes were a great hit with my customers, particularly the children, many of whom have joined me by dressing up too.

‘Customers who are safeguarding and can’t go out are one of our main concerns when we’re out on delivery. In some cases, we can be people’s only point of contact with the outside world for several weeks, or even months. One such customer on my round is a very special six-year-old girl called Jessie. Sadly, Jessie has a rare form of cancer called Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), which means she has no immunity and as a result, can’t go out at all during lockdown.

‘I was really moved by this, so I asked Jessie’s mum, how I could help. She said that Jessie was desperate for some paper as she loves to draw all the time. And so, I delivered three packs of printing paper to keep her going. From then on, I started providing her with daily packages of creative activities, which are quarantined in an outside cupboard and then cleaned with disinfectant.

‘Using my arts experience, I put together fun things to do, such as making a paper-mache piggy bank, painting pebbles for the “Warminster Lockdown Python,” providing board games, puppet making materials, and recipes for cooking cakes and biscuits.

‘Jessie has found it so much fun that she started pretending to be a postie – I told her that it’s no good trying to be a postie without all the proper equipment! So, we made her a uniform of her own. But then I thought: It’s no good just having a uniform! So, we found her a Post Office counter activity set to go with it too.

‘I also made a kit so she could build her very own postbox! Since she finished that, we’ve been providing Jessie with pretend letters from the characters in her favourite film, Frozen. The letters are helping with her literacy and she’s even becoming a bit of a comedian. When she had her last MRI scan, she told the nurse who treated her that because she had a really long plait, she must have been Rapunzel on furlough from Disneyland!

‘It really makes my day to see Jessie each morning, smiling and waving from her window. The pandemic has made me realise that we have an incredibly important role to play within our local communities as key workers. Not only do we keep the post moving, but we can also help people through the problems of having to lock down.’