A COMMUNITY food champion who worked on the frontline during the Covid pandemic has revealed how she nearly died after ending up in a coma and fighting life-threatening illnesses.

Greenock Telegraph: People of Inverclyde: Sue Harris

Belville Community Garden's Sue Harris has been at the forefront of a movement in Inverclyde to put supermarket 'waste' left over at the end of the day to good use. She initially joined the project as a volunteer and during the pandemic worked every day to deliver lifeline food parcels to those stuck at home isolating.

Back in 2010 Sue was rushed to hospital to under go a lifesaving operation after a mass in her kidneys ruptured.

Sue, from Larkfield, said: "I had a benign mass that I didn't know anything about until they burst. I nearly died. I had an emergency operation and ended up with sepsis and pneumonia.

"I was in a coma for five weeks and had to learn to walk and talk again. I was in hospital for nine weeks in total. My pals were told that I wasn't going to make it, to expect the worst.

"I simply wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the doctors and nurses in Inverclyde Royal, particularly in intensive care. I owe them my life. They were incredible."

Sue was in the house on her own when she suddenly felt an almighty pain and had to call an ambulance.

She said: "I thought something didn't feel right and managed to get to the phone and call an ambulance. I was able to unlock the front door and was on the bathroom floor when the paramedics turned up."

That brush with death changed Sue's life and she is determined to live it to the full.

Sue, who has also suffered from anxiety, said: "I realised that life is short and how important people like your friends are in your life. Now I do what I want and say what I want."

Five years ago Sue signed up as a volunteer with Belville Garden, an east end project which uses sustainability and the outdoors to improve people's lives.

The eco activist said: "I've always cared about sustainability and I loved what Belville were doing. We have a great team and we do great work."

Sue is now the project's community food worker and takes on the role of collecting unused stock from supermarkets for redistribution. Belville also runs a community larder where people are free to come and take veg, fruit, bread and other staples home.

Sue said: "Nothing goes to waste here, we see a lot of people who are struggling with their money. They need help and we try to help in whatever way we can."

During the teeth of the pandemic four years ago Belville played a key role in the grassroots relief effort, setting up an emergency food programme that attracted national attention and led to them winning a Queen's Award. Sue was part of that extraordinary effort, delivering all day to people isolating in their own homes without any means to get food.

She said: "It was an incredible time, but I would never want to go through it again. You could see when we dropped off the parcels what is meant to people."

For Sue, who has lived in Larkfield almost all her life, working in the east end was a link with her family's past.

Her dad Albert, a despatch clerk at Hasties, came from the east end, and her mum Cora, from Yorkshire, lived in Strone Crescent when Sue was born and worked in the Hamilton Suite.

She was two years old when they moved to Banff Road, where they raised their family-of-three.

Sadly Sue, who has two brothers, lost their parents at a young age. Her mum Cora died from cancer when she was only 10 and her dad passed away when she was 15 following a massive heart attack.

Sue, 60, said: "It does have an impact on you, losing your parents so young. There is so much I don't know about their lives."

Sue attended Springfield Primary and Greenock High before studying at the Glasgow College of Building & Print, graduating with an HND in printing and she was a DJ at colleges and unis in Glasgow for 15 years.

She says she has  made her neighbours and friends in Larkfield her family.

Sue told the Tele: "We stay in a great place, it's a really close knit community."

For the last eight years busy Sue has also been chair of the Larkfield Housing Association board.

She said: "I care about Larkfield and went onto the board to give something back. It is a great housing association."