BLACK History is more than a month on the calendar to Lindsey Atkinson because she and her family are part of that history.

Lindsey’s grandmother came to the UK from Barbados in 1960 after a call from the British Government for nurses to come and help the NHS, which was still in its infancy.

“She came to Blackpool and was possibly the first Black nurse there,” she said.

Because she was one of so few immigrants in the area, and because she was doing a vital job, Alison Bennison, nee Morris, was only 19 and all alone when she made that journey to start a new life.

She said she never felt unwelcome and lived her whole life in the seaside town.

The respect in which she was held has led to the decision to name a new well-being suite at the Blackpool Victoria Hospital after her.

Her granddaughter Lindsey is a community engagement producer at Tullie museum in Carlisle.

The job involves working with community groups and people with different lived experiences, and bringing new or unknown stories to life in the museum.

It includes establishing links with people seeking asylum, getting to know them and finding opportunities for people. In fact Tullie House has its own ‘secret garden’, a safe place for people to gather, be creative, do gardening, share their stories or just relax.

Lindsey runs bespoke projects for the museum, and organises Black History month activities.

Lindsey identifies as mixed heritage and cares deeply about raising awareness of the Black history that’s absent, overlooked or even erased.

There was nothing in history taught in schools that even mention the Windrush generation who were brought to Britain as the result of British government pleas for them to come and help restore and rebuild post-war Britain.

It is only through the Government Windrush scandal that the name means anything to most people.

The NHS in Carlisle is still populated by people of colour working as carers, nurses, doctors and more. They are respected within the NHS but in daily life often find it more difficult to make friends or to find houses.

“I volunteer with Anti-Racist Cumbria, who educate people, businesses, schools and workplaces, and they’ve always given me opportunities to share my grandma’s story to ensure she and people like her are remembered,” she said.

She will work to fight racism and her Grandma has made her own history in a story that has been picked up in a BBC Bite Size programme.