Residents held a collection to say thank you to her
A postie who goes the extra mile to keep customers happy has been given a massive Christmas bonus - from her customers.
Nicky Blyth, who is even loved by people's dogs, is so popular and appreciated on the Whitehouse estate that residents organised a collection to give her a festive bonus.
The idea started with one resident called Abbey wanting to say thank you. But news spread on the estate's Facebook page and soon grateful families had donated almost £800.
Abbey said: "When I asked our local Facebook page for our post lady’s name, I didn’t expect it to turn out this way! It seems that everyone loves her as much as we do and so I decided to organise a collection for her for Christmas."
The residents spent some of the cash on gifts for Nicky, including a food mixer, and arranged for a giant cheque to be presented for the rest. They also contacted Nicky's colleagues and her boss at Royal Mail to plot a secret handover last week.
"It was safe to say she was surprised. Nicky thought she was coming to deal with a complaint!" said Abbey. "She was so touched and cried and said she was speechless and couldn’t believe it - she was totally blown away.
"She told me that she is into baking and her current mixer is dying, almost 30 years old. She has wanted to save up for a new one for ages, and now she doesn’t need to save any more.
"It was so lovely to do something nice for such a nice person. Royal Mail should be very proud of our post lady - it is very obvious how much she is loved.
"I have never seen Nicky in a bad mood. She is always so happy despite being so busy and is never too busy to say hello. She is friendly, kind and thoughtful and so many people say she brings treats for their dogs, stops for a chat, genuinely gets to know people and looks after their post if she knows they aren’t in."
Another resident said: "She is just an outstanding post lady there is nothing that is too hard for her...She knows Whitehouse out the back of her hand and is currently showing the other new posties the way round."
Dog owners have described how Nicky is even a favourite with their pets. One said: "She is always giving the local dogs treats. She has a dog herself and you can always count on her to slide a cheeky treat to the dogs."
Another resident said: "When we moved from a village, I was worried there wouldn’t be any community spirit….Boy, I was wrong. We live in an amazing place with some amazing people!"
