WHEN the new Westhoughton Youth Project opens its doors in a few months time it will not only mark an important new step forward for Bolton Lads and Girls Club in the local community.

It will also chronicle a further chapter in the lifestory of a woman for whom caring has become second nature. Not that Karen Openshaw would feel too comfortable with that particular compliment. “This project is going to be all about the young people - their needs and their development,” she insists.

But the reality is that everything that has happened in 50 year-old Karen’s life so far has led her to this particular point.

Born in Salford, she lived in Little Lever from the age of seven and was the eldest of three children. Her parents split up when Karen was 11 and just about to make the tricky move to secondary school – a situation complicated still further when her warm, loving mother developed lung and then spinal cancer.

Karen “survived” Farnworth Grammar School where she was bullied by a group of older girls, but found good, life-long friends there, too. At home, she nursed her mother until she died when Karen was 15. Then she and her brothers went to live with her “amazing” aunt and uncle, Anne and Johnny Adams who lived nearby. Unfortunately, the caring continued as her aunt contracted TB.

She had become a regular churchgoer while still young but, perhaps not too surprisingly, Karen “lost” her faith during these formative years and didn’t regain it until she was 32. After she gave birth to her first daughter, it returned, stronger than ever.

Karen left school at 16 to work as a medical secretary, swiftly moving to Greater Manchester Police where she studied part-time and qualified as a counsellor. She married at 20 and divorced at 25, but later met her present husband, Bill, at a Farnworth Grammar School reunion.

They married and have two teenage daughters - Meganne now 17 and 13 year-old Katie – but the caring had continued as she nursed Bill’s elderly parents through illness.

While her girls were young, Karen again studied part-time, at the University of Bolton where she gained a BA Hons in English. She added post-graduate qualifications in mentoring because “encouraging, empowering and enabling others seemed very natural to me.”

She became a chaplain at Bolton Uni, where she developed and co-ordinated two interfaith courses. She undertook further training in post-graduate chaplaincy studies when she went on to be a chaplain and church leader at Oasis Academy at Media City, where she launched a church in 2012.

She also began a fruitful relationship with Zac’s Youth Bar in Farnworth, which later led her to become its Head of Development & Partnerships. When she left that job earlier this year, Karen Edwards, CEO at Bolton Lads and Girls Club, asked her to head the Westhoughton Project – “and I thought about that for about two minutes before agreeing to do it!” she adds with a laugh.

It’s plain that this exciting project – replicating all the mentoring, education, activities and inspiration that the Lads and Girls Club represents – is already something Karen is enjoying wholeheartedly.

She has contacted local businesses, churches and other organisations to help raise the £90,000 it will take to set up the project in the former Westhoughton Primary School on Central Drive.

Karen wants local people to be actively involved in all it means – “and people have been really wonderful so far,” she states.

Karen is no “bible-basher” (her words) but all she does is borne out of her massive faith. Her compassion shines from everything she does. Her life so far has given her many experiences that might have cowed a lesser personality, but Karen is grateful for this particular “c.v.” which has helped equip her to help local youngsters improve their lives.

“I feel there is an awful lot more good in the world than people realise,” she states. And if anyone can harness that goodwill and positivity, then Karen Openshaw can.

* To find out more about the Westhoughton Youth Project email Karen at karen.openshaw@blgc.co.uk or call 07787 255356, Facebook – Westhoughton Youth Project, Twitter - Westhoughtonyp