THE thing that Karen Edwards likes most about her job as CEO of Bolton Lads and Girls Club is that “you never know what’s going to come across your desk.”

This openness to challenges is not only something on which Karen, now 45, thrives but an enduring facet of her life.

Born and brought up in Atherton, she went to Hesketh Fletcher High School “not really excelling in anything although I did enjoy sports and I was a prefect.”

Karen, however, had her eyes set on a career in the police and, after taking her A levels at Wigan College, she applied to Merseyside Police as the only local force then taking on recruits at 18. She got accepted but this was deferred for 12 months.

At around the age of 17, she had got into heavy metal and become a Goth. “I’d always worked at McDonald's to fund my social life,” she said, “so when the police was deferred I got a job working for Leigh Paints in sales and admin. Then I worked at Lee Lighting at Kearsley for a while before going to Eurobake, an off-shoot of Greenhalghs.”

Her interest in social care was honed at home. Her mother, Pauline, was head of a YTS scheme for 16 to 19-year-olds. “She used to tell me about the lads involved - some with real problems – and I became interested.”

She enrolled for a Level 1 counselling course at Bolton College and her tutor suggested she would benefit from volunteering and that the best place was Bolton Lads and Girls Club.

The club started in 1889 to help improve the lives of Bolton’s young people in a time of great industrial and social change. For many years, it had premises on Bark Street in the town centre and this was where Karen headed on that first Friday evening.

“Harry Rigby – aged about 80 then – was sitting at the reception desk and there were about 20 young people lounging on it,” recalled Karen. “They said ‘who are you here to see?’ and I suppose it could have been quite intimidating but, somehow, it wasn’t.

“There was an amazing energy about the place. I loved it straight away.”

Facilities limited visitor numbers and there was also only a small team in charge, headed by Jerry Glover who plainly saw potential in the new volunteer. As for Karen, she took to the role, planning activities in the afternoons before her evening sessions and getting involved in the work with youngsters of all ages.

The club sent her on a youth work course. Then, after Jerry and the late Laura Nuttall had been to London to see a mentoring project, they advertised for a mentoring co-ordinator.

“We knew that many of our young people needed extra help, an adult to talk to them and spend time with them,” explained Karen. “This mentoring scheme sounded great so I said to my mum ‘that job is mine!’ and applied.”

Karen not only got the job but began to put together a scheme that worked. An advert in the Bolton Evening News and via businesses brought 40 volunteer mentors and the scheme was on its way.

This became a remarkable way of changing children’s lives. Karen herself mentored youngsters and many of those young people are in their 30s today.

“The estate agent who sold my house recently in just eight days was one,” added Karen. “I told him he’d done a great job and he said, well, you did a great job for us so it’s only right.”

In fact, the mentoring scheme won the Queen’s Award and is much-admired nationally. It was the first of many major roles she took at the club, including putting bids together for funding.

When Jerry left to start the Onside organisation – BLGC’s blueprint by then having caught the attention of Government with a plan to roll it out nationally – Karen became CEO. She received an MBE for her services to the voluntary sector in 2012.

The figures around BLGC’s Spa Road premises today are impressive: 120,000 visitors through the door annually, working with 6,800 individuals including looked after children and youngsters from many countries.

She says she can “leave my work behind” although admits to still being affected by children’s circumstances. She and husband Peter have adopted two boys, now seven and eight, so home-life is hectic.

Karen states that, as a result of her “beautiful boys”, she is now “more patient and understanding of other people’s situations.”

She is very proud of all that BLGC has achieved and very proud of a town “full of caring, generous, philanthropic people.”

She is also conscious of the importance of working together with other organisations and is the chair of Bolton Together. In 2017, the challenges continue for Karen.