700 hours a year, one free corner store, and the football team she built: meet Hull's quiet champion

Maureen Mulligan, a retired secondary-school teacher from Hull, England, has volunteered about 15 hours a week since 2022 - more than 700 hours in the past year - at Welcome House, helping people seeking sanctuary rebuild their lives. She runs a free corner store stocked with essentials like toiletries and period products, founded a football team that plays sides across the North, and started photography groups that help newcomers find confidence behind a camera. This weekend she received the Special Recognition Award at the Time2Volunteer Awards 2026. Her nomination called her 'the mother that many families no longer have.' She hadn't wanted to be nominated at all: the difference she makes, she said, was reward enough.