Northern Ireland v Lithuania (12/11/2021)

WORDS: HEIDI McALPIN

If you fancy a free ticket to a football international, or any other blue chip sporting fixture, have you ever considered volunteering your services for the big event? VOLUNTEERING CAN OPEN UP A WHOLE NEW WORLD

Games and applied and that was my first volunteering gig.” Since then retiree Lyn has gone on to lend her services to many high profile events, not just here in Northern Ireland but across the water in England, too. From the Giro d’Italia to the Tall Ships, London’s 2018 Women’s Hockey World Cup to the 2019 Women’s Netball World Cup, over the years Lyn has garnered an impressive haul of pin badges, t-shirts and lanyards across her volunteering journey. But as a lifelong football fan, one of her favourite sporting fixtures is right here at the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park for a Northern Ireland international . “I would have watched football on TV and been a Linfield and Liverpool fan since my mid-teens,” says Lyn, whose favourite player is Liverpool and England legend John Barnes. “I love John, there’s just something about him,” she says. Lyn’s first game as a volunteer was when Northern Ireland took on Germany in October 2017 as part of the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 qualification campaign. “It was a great experience,” remembers Lyn. “The GAWA were absolutely amazing. I was blown away by them. You hear about them being the 12th man and they so are.” As a match volunteer part of Lyn’s role involves everything from guiding VIP hospitality guests to their seats in the Billy Bingham Lounge to the time she had

LYN WI TH SOME OF HER FELLOW VOLUNTEERS AT THE UEFA WOMEN’S U19 EUROS, WHICH WERE STAGED IN NORTHERN IRELAND BACK IN 2017.

That’s exactly what one Belfast woman did eight years ago, and she hasn’t looked back since. Self-confessed sports fan Lyn Cooke cut her volunteering teeth at the World Police and Fire Games in her home city in 2013, but it was the 2012 Olympic Games that first sparked her interest . “I was watching the London Olympics and thought they were absolutely fantastic,” says Lyn of those iconic Games. “I wondered how you got into it but didn’t know anything about volunteering. Then I saw the ads for the World Police and Fire

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NIR V LTU