Helen Keast

It takes something of a true calling to leave a job you’d been in for 32 years – but when the opportunity to join Harbour Housing came along, Helen did just that – swapping customers for clients and swapping brightening up a shopping experience for transforming people’s lives. 

How to sum up the very much Cornish born-and-bred Helen in a sentence is to ask you a question: “Have you ever met a Viking who can play the fiddle and do pyrography?”. Well, now you have. Among Helen’s litany of hobbies, she’s part of a Viking re-enactment group, loves playing the fiddle and her sizeable list of hobbies includes pyrography – creating art work by burning wood.

Helping others is something that comes second nature to Helen. During her three decades in retail, she spent time helping people in their moment of need as a Samaritans listening volunteer. In addition, she holds qualifications in psychology, is a qualified counsellor and hopes to use these skills to understand and engage with our residents as part of our work in breaking down the barriers they face, such as mental health issues. If that wasn’t enough, she is also a user of British Sign Language.

Helen also narrowly missed an opportunity on TV stardom – having been invited to be part of an advert for B&Q – which sadly was unaired. Mass media’s loss is our gain, however as in Helen we’ve got a new star of the show among our team.

But what of those other interests? They include, but are almost certainly not limited to: crafting, gardening, walks in nature forests and beaches around the Cornish coast, felt craft, knitting, adult colouring, doodling, macrame, quilling, needle craft, etching and sketching, cooking and baking, watching Netflix, anagrams, word searches, pub quizzes and listening to live music.