Bradford & District | Archive | 2005 | February | 18
From the Telegraph & Argus, first published Friday 18th Feb 2005.
It's not just MP Ann Cryer who has been representing Keighley in Westminster.
Former Greenhead High School pupil Helen Heywood (pictured left) has spent ten years rising up the ranks of the UK branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), which is based in the borough.
The 34-year-old, who is originally from Utley, has worked for the organisation ever since she secured a job with it fresh out of college.
She studied at Greenhead, went to Kent University to complete a degree in French and English and then returned to the north to do a full time secretarial course at Keighley College. She said: "I applied to the CPA after a job for an administration assistant was advertised in one of the national papers.
"I've been very lucky. It's only a small organisation with eight people working there, so when there's been opportunities for promotion I've taken them."
Now as assistant secretary Helen is third in command.
She helps organise exchanges for members of parliament to commonwealth countries and arranges programmes for foreign delegates visiting the UK. The job has taken her around the world to far-flung countries such as Australia, Cameroon, Sri Lanka, Namibia and Tanzania.
The CPA also stages three pan-Commonwealth conferences in the UK each year to promote parliamentary democracy.
Its membership consists of national, provincial, state and territorial members of parliaments and legislatures from all countries of the Commonwealth, and includes Mrs Cryer.
Helen, who now lives in central London, returned to Keighley for the first time in three years last week when she accompanied eight Pakistani delegates on their visit to the town.
She said: "It was the first time I'd been back since my parents moved away three years ago. I felt very nostalgic.
"I had a good experience at Greenhead. It is a nice community school. It provides a very good grounding for people who want to make something for themselves."
Next on the cards for Helen is an international conference to coincide with Common-wealth Day on March 14.
Along with planning the conference she is also preparing for the birth of her first child with husband Angus.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008