A cherry tree is to be planted in Allenby Park as a dedication to 102-year-old Joan Rich who walked 102 laps of the park too raise money for the NHS.

Former nurse and Royal Military Policewoman Joan, raised nearly £35,000 for the NHS charities after completing her feat to national acclaim.

Felixstowe town councillors are expected to approve the £400 outlay at a virtual Civic and Communities committee meeting on Wednesday evening.

The cherry tree will be planted at a special ceremony in November by the town mayor Mark Jepson, with Joan and her daughter Diane, who walked every step of the way, in early November.

It is proposed the wording for the plaque will read: "Planted by Felixstowe Town Council in honour of retired nurse Joan Rich. On her 102nd birthday, Joan completed her mission of walking 102 laps of this park to raise funds for the NHS during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic."

Allenby Park has a special place in Joan's heart with many incredible connections.

Although Joan has moved around a lot of her life, she spent 14 years working at Felixstowe Hospital, and told Nub news how she used to have to come to Allenby Park to find patients that had 'escaped', and take them back to their wards.

The park was given its name after the owner of Felixstowe House on the land, which was knocked down by General Allenby in 1923 after his mother died, and Joan has lived within sight of the park for 53 years.

Co-incidentally there was another Allenby Park named after the general in Jerusalem, who was famed for his exploits there during World War One, where Joan served with the army in the second world war.

Joan puts her determination, and fitness down to being of sound stock, her career as a nurse and in the Army, and years of cycling.

Many people either exercising or visiting have become park friends and that has helped to encourage Joan, although she admits there have been some tough days, usually when it is windy and her hat gets blown off and they have to miss a walk.

Her father was in the army, and before the war Joan was a member of the Ipswich Bicycle Club, and still proudly wears the club brooch. She enjoyed a particular poignant reunion in Jerusalem when as part military duties included greeting and helping with the rehabilitation of POWs returning from Japanese camps.

One new arrival coming of a troop ship at Alexendria called out, 'Joan, you're a bloody Red Cap!' It was not just one, but a gang of her good friends from the Ipswich Bicycle Club, who had joined the Suffolk Regiment and been captured during World War Two.

Joan continued to ride he bike into her 90s until the family took it off her for her own safety and donated it to Bikes For Africa.

During her long and illustrious life, Joan has worked selling veg at the Butter Market in Ipswich, managed the Co-op shop in Norwich Road, was a fire warden in Nottingham, married in Jerusalem then worked at Hillingdon Hospital before the Community Hospital at Felixstowe between 1964 and 1978.

It is not too late to donate to Joan's JustGiving page here...