HE IS a bona fide supervolunteer with almost 40 YEARS of helping others to his credit.

When coronavirus struck, caring grandad Bobby Pollock refused to take a back seat.

The retired housing officer signed up to be a delivery driver for Glasgow South West Foodbank in Castlemilk and has been making sure families in need receive vital supplies during lockdown.

“Volunteering during lockdown is a bit unusual, especially if you are on the wrong side of 64 and have asthma,” laughed Bobby, who lives in Croftfoot with his wife Jill. The couple have two sons, Craig and Ross, and an eight month-old granddaughter, Robyn.

“However, after a risk assessment I passed a fitness test and with a few added precautions got the go-ahead.”

He added: “I am saddened that in my home city people have to rely on food parcels but the reality is there in front of us and I am more than happy to play my part.”

Bobby, an Evening Times Community Champions finalist in 2013, jokes that he is “addicted to volunteering.”

He explained: “I started with Glasgow Children’s Panel in 1984 just to gain a few years’ experience to assist with my housing career. Seventeen years later, I was still there.”

After retiring, Bobby volunteered for Victim Support Scotland in Glasgow. “I was a witness to the stabbing of a friend when I was 18 and since then I have always been interested in crime and its effects on victims,” he explained.

“Since then, I have also volunteered with Childline, Citizens Advice and Glasgow Children’s Hospital, been on two school boards, my local crime prevention panel, our area’s Neighbourhood Watch scheme and Cathcart Housing Association.”

Bobby has helped up at numerous events including the Davis Cup, the 2018 European Championships and the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, where he was a Queen’s Baton bearer in the city.

At the time, he had recently retired from a 40-year housing career which included two decades with Maryhill Housing Association. (He donated part of his final pay cheque to what was then Yorkhill Children’s Charity.)

He proudly carried the baton through Castlemilk, where he had worked as a city council housing officer.

Bobby is also a UEFA Euro 2020 Long Term Volunteer and the SFA praised him in a tweet on Tuesday to celebrate Volunteers Week.

He added: “I encourage friends and family to volunteer all the time.

“You get great experience and you meet a fascinating array of people - over the years I have met everyone from the Princess Royal and Sir Andy Murray to Lewis Hamilton and Kenny Dalglish.”

Bobby was born in Cardonald, and from the age of 12, he helped out in his father’s butcher’s shop delivering orders to “far flung places like Ralston.”

He joined Maryhill Housing Association in 1993 to work with tenants of the Barnes Road area, in Ruchill, whose homes were being transferred from the then Glasgow District Council.

“I’m a great believer that you get a lot out of helping people,” he said.