GIRL guides in Ickenham have bid farewell to one of their leading lights, who retired this month after nearly 50 years in the guiding movement.

Marjorie Brooks, 62, has been involved with Ickenham Brownies and 4th Ickenham Guides for 25 years. She became a guide herself in 1962 in County Durham and was leading her first brownie pack just six years later.

Stepping back she may be, principally to help look after her three small grandchildren, the latest of whom was born on the day of the royal wedding, but Marjorie's diary is far from empty and her involvement in the movement she loves will continue, she said.

"I run a little shop selling the uniforms, so will carry on doing that.

"I'm remaining a guider, just without a unit, so that'll let me keep attending events, particularly next year, when it's the Queen's diamond jubilee."

She will also be continuing to help as needed with brownie packs and will be accompanying a group of guides to Austria next year.

Marjorie has a wealth of memories of her time in guiding, including a chance encounter with Dancing on Ice stars Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean 20 years ago when a booking blunder led to her taking a group of girls to Slough ice-rink at the wrong time, when the Olympic stars were rehearsing.

She feels guiding is very important, and added: "The girls need their own space and a safe environment to socialise, and we give them that, along with new challenges.

"It's a real pleasure to see the difference in them from when they were small to how they are as they grow up."