A woman who runs a charity workshop to give people with disabilities work experience has been nominated as a community hero.

Watford MP Richard Harrington nominated Watford Workshop CEO, Linda McIntyre, for the title as a community hero as part of the Watford Observer’s campaign.

He said: “It’s my pleasure to nominate Linda McIntyre, CEO of Watford Workshop, for a community award recognising her outstanding dedication to improving the lives of disabled people in Watford.

“She is a truly inspirational woman, and I have seen first-hand how she has personally supported people into meaningful employment and changed their lives forever.”

Linda originally worked in the corporate industry but when she was diagnosed with Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) – this is a condition associated with mental and physical burn out.

It wasn’t long before she was forced out of her job and found it hard to get back into work.

This was when she discovered the workshop and started giving lessons to disabled people in IT – gradually she worked her way up to becoming CEO.

Linda has now devoted more than 20 years to the workshop and getting local people into work.

“It’s amazing, I was originally in the corporate world and then what happened was I got ME - they said it was best If I parted with the company.

“That was when I realised what it could be like for people who are disabled – they get treated differently.

“Many employers may not want to give people with disabilities a chance.

“Thank you for this nomination - Richard is a fantastic supporter of the work shop.

“Employing disabled people is a good way of getting them skills they need but people always assume that they don’t have those skills.

“But you never know what sort of talents or history they may have - You need to give people a chance.”