Seventy-year-old Joan Wood has not just one Courier paper round but three, delivering 616 papers every Friday morning.

Joan says she loves the exercise and the fresh air the three rounds provide her with and also says that it gives her the opportunity to chat to people as she delivers the papers.

The retired warden of a sheltered housing complex will celebrate her 71st birthday next month and delivers the Courier to Spring Valley Industrial Estate, lower Pulrose and upper Pulrose.

She says that the three rounds take her around four hours to complete but enthusiastic Joan sets off delivering the papers on a Friday morning even before she has had her breakfast.

She said: ’I love being out delivery and talking to people. I deliver to Spring Valley starting off at about 8.20am, then go home and have my breakfast around 9.20am, before going back out to do the two Pulrose rounds.

’It’s mostly corporate properties in Spring Valley and in Pulrose there is sheltered housing which receives 40 papers but I deliver to each door.

’I only started doing the three rounds in the summer but I used to deliver the Courier in Ramsey previously, when I lived there.

’The Ramsey round involved houses up by the golf course so every house had steps but I enjoy the exercise.

’It took me around three hours to do the one round there but I loved it because of the exercise, fresh air and chatting to people.

’After I moved to Douglas, I rang the paper because we hadn’t been receiving a Courier where we live and I found out there were vacancies for rounds in our area.’

Many people save the extra cash they earn from doing a Courier round to treat themselves to something and this is what Joan says she does.

She said: ’I often use the money to take my partner and myself out for a meal once a month.’

And as if three Courier rounds were not enough to occupy her time, Joan also works in a charity shop and does some work for Hospice Isle of Man, as well as the Live at Home Scheme.

’I love the social side of things,’ said Joan.

Would you like to be a Courier distributor? There are rounds available across the island.

The minimum age is 13.

For more information and to find out if there is a round available near you contact Bev Moore on 695644 or [email protected]