North West – Kate

Kate Crane is the Regional Co-ordinator for the North West region, a role she has had since 2008, supporting 25 branches from South Cheshire up to the Scottish border, a long thin region over 150 miles long and about 50 miles wide. Kate lives near Chorley in Lancashire in the middle of the region, is married to Neil and has two children, Matthew who is 4 and Alexandra who is nearly 3.

Kate joined the NCT when pregnant with her son after she saw a poster in the local maternity unit for mums-to-be evenings, a new initiative by her local branch, Chorley and Leyland, to recruit more members. The group of mums that first met there still keeps in touch and meets regularly 4 years later.

A few months after having her son, Kate began volunteering as Bumps and Babes Co-ordinator for the branch, a group she found a great source of support in the early days of parenthood and a useful way to meet other new mums in her area as most of her friends had much older children. A few months later, she became Branch Treasurer, a post she still holds alongside her regional role.

Kate became involved with regional matters when a group was set up within the old region 2 to try to offer support to the branches, initially offering support to other treasurers. A few months later, when other members of the team had to step away due to other commitments, Kate agreed to take on the Regional Co-ordinator role, initially on a temporary basis. Kate is passionate about the NCT and the services it offers to parents and took on the regional role to help other branches provide these services to as wide an audience as possible.

Outside the NCT, Kate worked in IT support and management for over 20 years until she took redundancy recently from her job and is currently considering new career options in adult education and life coaching.