Liz Clowes (née Kudelasz, previously Liz Taylor)

My parents were both Hungarian refugees, the one fleeing the Jewish pogrom in 1939 and the other fleeing Russian persecution in 1956. I was brought up in a mêlée of language, music, food, multiple visitors and general craziness. So I fled the ship at 18 and settled on a life of calm hard work in the insurance industry becoming one of the foremost Risk Management practitioners of my age, after chairing the national association AIRMIC at the age of 34 as the first female on the Board. (See LinkedIn profile Liz Taylor Clowes). I qualified as a Fellow in three separate disciplines and ran my own businesses for the last twenty years of my working life.

I have one son, a son in law, three step sons and daughter, and twelve grandchildren/ step grandchildren and numerous foster children in the past.

On retirement I took up volunteering as a profession, heading up our local food, beer and music festival, parish council, twinning and other organisations. I was pleased in May 2022 to help 24 Ukrainian refugees to come into my community and form their own network to help salve the horror of war and the torture of being forced to leave home and country.

In the past three years since the death of my late husband I’ve learned the meaning of the word ‘no’, unstitching myself from my voluntary activities, and have just continued my work with the Ukrainians to see the children thrive in local schools and the parents take jobs and settle in their new homes. I’ve also rekindled a love of music and am an active violinist in a symphony orchestra.

This will be first time in three years that I’ve said ‘yes’ to a voluntary activity!