A career of service to her community
Last week, SI Cannock & District welcomed Helen Fisher – recently retired Staffordshire Deputy Commissioner for Police, Fire Rescue and Crime – to their meeting.
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Born locally, Helen has served her community for many years as a Town, District and County Councillor before she took up the role of Deputy Commissioner in 2021.
Helen recounted the different phases of her life; as a teenager her musical prowess on keyboards lead to her performing in local venues and working in the musical instruments department in a local department store. She later taught music at home before setting up a successful car repairs business with her then husband that is still trading.
Always interested in politics and inspired by Margaret Thatcher’s election as Prime Minister, Helen joined the local Conservative party in the late 90s and in 2007 was elected to Burntwood Town Council where she served for 12 years and Lichfield District Council. She held a number of cabinet positions one of them being for Community where she helped survivors of Domestic Abuse in her community. One of her more memorable council meetings as Chair of the Planning Committee was having to keep order during a fractious debate about the building of a chicken farm in the area where many protestors were dressed as chickens!
In 2017 she was elected onto Staffordshire County Council, where she represented Burntwood South for four years. She served as Cabinet member for Highways and Transport – the first female to hold this position. This was a very challenging role which she enjoyed but after four years, Helen decided not to run for office again.
After reuniting with and subsequently marrying her childhood sweetheart, Helen had plans to travel but in 2021 was asked by Staffordshire’s Commissioner for Police, Fire, Rescue and Crime, Ben Adams to join him as his Deputy which she did, taking on another challenging and varied role which she thoroughly enjoyed before retiring in 2024.
Helen painted a fascinating picture of her the phases of her life, all different but all connected by her positive can do attitude and confidence in her ability to succeed, something she will continue to do in whatever adventures the next phase of her life has to offer!.
To find out more about Cannock & District Soroptimists please visit their Facebook page: facebook.com/SICannock or their website: sigbi.org/cannock-and-district.
