A former prison governor from Harrogate has raised almost £5,000 for charity by giving speeches about her 35 years in the prison service.

Veronica Bird, a Harrogate resident of over 20 years, worked with some of the most notorious criminals in the country, including Moors Murderer Myra Hindley, and Charles Bronson, a man labelled ‘the most violent prisoner in the country’.

Proceeds from Ms Bird’s speaking engagements will be handed to nine local and national charities at an event on Tuesday. The event, which will be held in a garden on Cornwall Close, will be opened by Brackenfield school choir.

Ms Bird, who received an OBE for her work in the prison service, said:

“I came from a big family, a lot of poverty, and so I know what it is to be without food, without clothes.

“My school motto was ‘not for oneself, but for all’ and that is what I try to follow. Without it, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

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She has chosen local charities Saint Michael’s Hospice and Girlguiding’s Birk Crag Centre. Cheques will also go to Jacqui’s Million, Barnsley Hospice, St Leonard’s Hospice, and Mind, alongside the MS Society UK, Royal British Legion, and the NSPCC.

The event begins at noon, at 100 Cornwall Close, Harrogate, on Tuesday 2nd November.