Pride of Guernsey: Tamara O’Brien

‘Tamara has been creating beautiful post-box toppers for years and she has excelled for the Island Games,’ said her nominator, who wished to remain anonymous.

‘She’s made 14 post-box toppers, one for each sport. She’s done it for the local athletes and the others coming in.

‘She’s gone the extra mile. She must’ve been making them for ages because there are so many of them,’ they said.

It took six months for Tamara to complete all the Games-themed toppers.

‘I didn’t want to put people on because there’s so many nationalities, that’s why there’s only the venues,’ Tamara said of the Games toppers.

She first started making her crochet box toppers in October 2020 as a lockdown hobby, and has now made 35 of them in total, with no sign of stopping soon.

She has been working with charities, such as Health Connections, Friends of Frossard Ward, the Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation and GreenAcres.

And she is always on-trend, with Christmas and Halloween-themed toppers to fit the time of year as well.

‘Whatever the season, the celebration or the event, she makes us all smile,’ the nominator said.

Tamara, who has long Covid, occasionally needs help from a friend to put them up, but the crocheting has been something which she has not needed to adapt for.

‘I am in shock,’ she said upon receiving news of her nomination.

‘It’s just a hobby, but when you get the reaction, it’s amazing.’