Having myself been a student at Alun School, I am now proud to be a teacher in that school - it was here that staff helped to bring out my skills and talents. I am now trying to do the same for my students. I am pleased to say too, that my own daughter also completed her secondary education at this school.

At this point I have served one full term as a Town Councillor for Broncoed, and became the Mayor in the first year of the pandemic. This proved a difficult for everyone, but the thing which shone through for me, was the sense of community, and the care and compassion shown by so many, to help those in need. As someone who needed to shield, I looked at ways in which I could serve the needs of our community, particularly those who were at high risk, and those who suddenly found themselves unemployed and in financial difficulties.

My life, both professional and personal, has had one constant theme – service and care for my fellow man. As a teacher, and volunteer, I have been confronted with the devastating realities of poverty, and lack of opportunity that many face. It has impassioned me to stand and do my best to bring about permanent and life enhancing changes, and equal opportunities for all. This can only be permanently achieved through legislation and the power of the ballot box.

• Introduced online meetings for the Wards to listen to concerns and needs

• Held a Jo Cox event to highlight the amazing work of so many women within our own community

• Forged relationships between KidsBank Chester, Social Services and our town, to meet the needs of our children and their parents, in terms of clothing and larger items such as cots, prams etc, at a time when it was difficult to get out and about and purchase such items.

• Set up a Uniform Recycling Scheme. This work continues, as I have been working with County Council Officers to set up a Hub for recycling children’s clothes, any monies voluntarily donated are used to purchase stationery for Yr6 students for move to secondary.

• Chose North Wales Blood Bikes and Flintshire Food Bank as my charities.

• Helped distribute toys in and around Mold area for North Wales Superkids and the lovely Margaret Williams, for children who would otherwise have had a very different Christmas

• With friends and fellow councillors, I founded the Mold BookFest to encourage and promote literacy within the community, aware that for our young people, the pandemic was a setback with reading skills progression etc. Organised a book collection with Mold Plastic Reduction group, of which i'm a member and distributed them at Christmas to young people living in Mold.

• I'm a member of Lions Clubs International. In 2017-2018, I became a District Governor for this worldwide service organisation. This role is one of administrative head, for in my case, 800 Lions and 54 clubs, located in Anglesey, Shropshire, Cheshire, Conwy, Flintshire and Staffordshire.

I have put peoples’ well-being at the heart of many activities and decisions that I have made, trying always to balance this with activities that are both realistic and achievable that will result in positive long-term results.

With me you will have a hard-working councillor, who listens to your concerns and tackles them with honesty and integrity.

• Trustee to Daniel Owen Community Centre

• Trustee and Chair to Flintshire City of Sanctuary

• Chair of Flintshire Fairtrade Coalition

• Founding member of Mold BookFest

• Member of Flintshire for a Green New Deal

• School Governor to St David’s

• NEU Disability Officer

I worked closely with Teresa over many years on projects to support the town of Mold .

she has proved herself to be a champion for the town both as a former Mayor and in her voluntary work supporting everything from help with school uniforms to supporting the proposed book festival in town.

I know she will do her best to serve the whole town.

Teresa is a hardworking and kind person who cares. She shares the same values as I do in wanting to help people, striving to preserve and enhance our natural environment, and working locally to make a difference.

Her experience of teaching young people, along with her knowledge of health services, fund raising, and local issues, would mean that Teresa will make great contributions as a County Councillor.

Teresa is already an asset to the community of Mold and could make a much greater impact from a County level. I hope people will see how valuable that activism can be in the right person, and will vote for Teresa on the 5th May.

I am delighted to be given the opportunity to provide testimony for Teresa Carberry.

Teresa first approached us at KidsBank Chester in early 2020 asking how we could work together for the benefit of Flintshire families.

At our first meeting it was evident that, like us, Teresa has a heart of service, service to community, to families, to children.

It was also evident that she has a pioneer mindset and the vision and perseverance to see a project through.

We have absolutely no hesitation in supporting Teresa in any role she has applied for.

Before having the opportunity to meet Teresa Carberry in person, I was aware of her commitment to her local community and active support for the underprivileged. I first met Teresa in 2019 at a public event to mark Fair Trade fortnight when she was both manning the stand to encourage sales and engaging enthusiastically with everyone there. Following this and shortly before she came Mayor of Mold, Teresa attended a coffee morning organised by fellow trustees and myself to raise funds for our Flintshire City of Sanctuary (FCOS) group. This was her first opportunity to learn about FCOS, our purpose and objectives but she immediately expressed interest in and support for our activities and offered to support us where she could.

Very soon after becoming Mayor, Teresa invited Trustees from FCOS to speak at the ‘Great Get Together’ held virtually on 28th June, enabling us to talk to the wider community about issues related to refugees and sanctuary. Thus, in late Summer 2020 when constrained by COVID-19 guidelines, as our Board of Trustees was considering how we could start our strategic planning for 2021-2022 by Zoom meetings, it was proposed and agreed that we should invite Teresa to act as an external facilitator to lead and moderate this process.

Despite her teaching commitments and extremely high workload as Mayor in a time of pandemic, Teresa agreed to facilitate two workshops for us by Zoom and requested background information so that she had a good grounding beforehand. Teresa was an impressive and effective facilitator ensuring that we achieved our objectives for both days and to time – a rare achievement for our Board. She also stressed her continuing commitment to us and has since aided us proactively (for example by finding a support scheme for a resettled Syrian man starting his own IT support business) and on request (via the Kid’s Bank on the birth of baby to one of the resettled Syrian families).

Our experience of Teresa Carberry is of an honorable, dedicated and energetic leader who delivers to her commitments and makes a difference in her community.