A dedicated volunteer from Walsall who has an incredible 30 year track record of service has been nominated for a top award at Bescot Stadium on 21st November.

Irene Yoong Henery (pictured) has been nominated for Volunteer of the Year for the Walsall Awards which celebrate Walsall`s business and community life.  

Irene volunteered at St. Mary’s the Mount RC Church in Walsall from 1996 until now, a total of 30 years. She first volunteered to wash the altar linen cloths in 1996 when Canon Peter Taylor was parish priest. Later she became a team leader for cleaning the church, organising a team of 4-5 volunteers, and she is still doing that voluntary work now, over 20 years later. In addition, from 2023 she also became its parish treasurer, as well as a member of the fundraising team, organising fundraising events for St. Mary’s the Mount , as well as the Archdiocese of Birmingham, and raising thousands of pounds for various churches including the Oratory of St Philip Neri in Birmingham. Irene also repairs the church pews for the last few years.

In addition to raising 4 children and running a multi-award winning law firm for 22 years,
Irene also volunteers for the following pro-life charities and organisations: Society for the
Protection of Unborn Children (Chairperson of Walsall branch for 5 years), Life Charity,
March for Life, 40 Days for Life. She actively supports Christian Concern, ADF International, and CitizenGo.



Irene was born in Malaysia to ethnic Chinese parents. She came to England in 1989 to study accountancy in London, and worked at 3 jobs in the summer of 1990 to support herself and to pay the tuition fees. In winter, it involved waking up at 4:30am, starting her shift at 6:30am in freezing weather, selling breakfasts to bleary-eyed commuters at Waterloo station. After she qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant and got married, she and her English husband adopted an abandoned baby girl from China in 2003 whom they raised along with their biological children. Irene is currently Walsall Council’s first ethnic Chinese councillor.