Stafford born Lorraine steps back after decades of events and community work

After more than three decades of voluntary and community work in the UK and overseas, Stafford born Lorraine Conkey has announced that she is semi retiring and stepping back from organising major public events.

For many people in Stafford, Lorraine’s name will be familiar through LR Partnership Events, Staffordshire Cultural Events CIC and the numerous events and community projects she has organised or been involved with over the years her involvement in organising events actually stretches back more than 40 years.

Lorraine first caught the event organising bug while working at MRI in Stafford in the mid 1980s, when she became the youngest person at the time to serve on the company’s Social Club Committee. The committee organised a wide range of events for employees and their families

Lorraine said:

“I suppose organising events has always been in my blood. I caught the bug when I worked at MRI in the early eighties and became the youngest person at the time to join the Social Club Committee.

“We organised some amazing events for the workforce and their families. There were Family Fun Days, raft races, charity pub crawls, Participating in Stafford Pageant with the company float and having to decorate the lorry the night before. They were great times and I am sure there will still be quite a few people around Stafford who remember those days.

“I certainly didn't imagine then that all those years later I would have my own events company and be organising major events in my home town.”

A very different direction in life

Lorraine’s life took a very different turn in the mid 1990s when she developed serious health problems caused by Cushing’s Disease.

She underwent surgery for a brain tumour in 1995, followed by a second operation around 18 months later. The experience became a major turning point in her life. Since then, Lorraine has undergone several further surgeries and continues to deal with ongoing health issues today. She also developed dyslexia following her brain surgery. Despite the difficult periods along the way, she has continued to push through them and get on with the many projects, interests and voluntary roles she has taken on over the years

Lorraine became a Reiki Master in 1996, and almost 30 years later Reiki continues to be an important part of her life. Today she practises and teaches through Satya Lineage Reiki.

Her interest in helping others eventually took her around the world.

Since the early 2000s, Lorraine has undertaken voluntary work in India, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Thailand on a wide variety of projects with her overseas volunteering entirely self funded.

Her overseas voluntary work has includes a healing centre in India, community work in Cambodia, helping with hotel staff training in Sri Lanka following the devastating 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, animal rescue and a women’s wellbeing clinic in Thailand, Lorraine gained her TEFL qualification and taught adults English in Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and Hungary continuing another interest which developed through her years of overseas voluntary work.

Bringing events back home to Stafford

In 2013, Lorraine established LR Partnership Events, turning something she had enjoyed doing for decades into her own events business.

Over the following 13 years she organised a huge variety of events, including Stafford Walking Street, Staffs Fest, Stafford Music and Food Festival, Staffordshire Day, Party on the Pitch, Stafford’s Got Soul & Motown nights and Stafford History Day, alongside numerous other music, entertainment, community and town centre events.

Her work has brought her into contact with thousands of performers, traders, businesses, charities, volunteers, community organisations and members of the public.

Some projects have also seen Lorraine working with Stafford Borough Council and Staffordshire County Council, including events and initiatives she was approached to organise on their behalf. However, Lorraine’s work in Stafford has never been solely about large public events.

Community projects that became much more

Lorraine founded the Over 55s Tuesday Mixer Club in 2014, creating an affordable weekly meeting place where more mature people could socialise, make new friends and help combat loneliness and social isolation. More than a decade later, the club continues to meet every Tuesday at the White Eagle Club in Stafford and regularly attracts large numbers each week.

During the Covid pandemic, Lorraine was also instrumental in establishing Hearts & Hands in October 2020.What began during an extraordinarily difficult period developed into a major Stafford community project supporting working and retired households with food and other essentials. Lorraine remained involved with Hearts & Hands for almost six years before retiring from the organisation at the end of July 2026.

She also continues to be involved with Staffordshire Dementia Friendly Community, supporting Chair Julie Perry with the administration of the group as it works to encourage businesses and organisations to help make Stafford a more dementia friendly town.

Awards and recognition

Lorraine’s work, and the projects and events she has been involved with, have received numerous awards over the years.

She was named Our Staffordshire Business Person of the Year in 2022 and received the Community Award Local Hero in 2022 for her work with Stafford Walking Street, Hearts & Hands and the Tuesday Mixer Club.

Her community work has also received several Support Staffordshire awards, including recognition for supporting older people and for business contribution to communities.

Stafford Walking Street was named Pride of Staffordshire Community Event of the Year in both 2019 and 2020, while Staffs Fest received What’s On Readers Awards for Best Staffordshire Music Festival in 2019 and 2021.

In 2024, Stafford History Day was named Our Staffordshire Community Event of the Year, an award which has particular significance now that Lorraine has decided History Day will be the one major public event she continues to organise.

Having turned 60 in August, Lorraine says the milestone gave her the opportunity to look at everything she had been doing and decide what she genuinely wanted to continue taking on.

Lorraine said:

“When I look back over the last 30 years, my life has certainly gone in directions I could never have predicted.

“Going through two brain tumour operations caused by Cushing’s Disease in my thirties changed my life. Since then one thing seems to have led to another, from becoming a Reiki Master and volunteering overseas to setting up community projects and eventually coming full circle and organising events again here in Stafford.

“I have had some fantastic years and have met and worked with thousands of people along the way. I have also had the opportunity to work with Stafford Borough Council and Staffordshire County Council on a number of projects they asked me to organise.

“There have been amazing volunteers, businesses, pubs, clubs, charities, performers, musicians, organisations and individuals involved in everything we have done and there are simply far too many people to name individually.

“Turning 60 this year made me think about how much I actually want or can continue taking on. People see an event happening on the day but they don't necessarily see the months of work and responsibility that go on behind the scenes. I have decided it is time to slow down.

“I am not disappearing and I am certainly not retiring completely. I will continue with my Reiki, overseeing the Tuesday Mixer Club and my involvement with Staffordshire Dementia Friendly Community.

“But when it comes to major public events, there will now be just one. Stafford History Day is the event I want to concentrate on and continue building.”

Alongside her events, community work, Reiki and volunteering Lorraine has also found time to become an author, writing 12 books. Most have been children's books but her interest in her home town and its heritage also led her to write a historical book about Stafford and its buildings. Her writing is another reflection of the varied interests she has pursued over the years and, in the case of Stafford's history, an interest that now continues through Stafford History Day.