Who says when you retire that it is time to slow down?

Stephen Thurlow, 83, certainly doesn't believe in taking life easy.

Every year, four weeks before Armistice Sunday hundreds of poppy tins are delivered to his branch of the Royal British Legion (RBL). Stephen takes 150 tins and hands them out all round the borough.

Stephen says: "I take them to the police station, Fairfield, cafs, shops, schools; you name it I go there with a poppy tin.

"Two weeks before Armistice Sunday I go to the Whitgift Centre on my scooter, because I can't walk hardly, and I stand outside Clark's the shoe shop with a tin from around 9.30am to 5pm every day for two weeks including Saturdays and Sundays."

Last year Stephen collected £10,400 from the tins and since he started in 1986 he has collected £176,000 for the RBL.

The Royal British Legion is the UK's leading charity providing financial, social and emotional support to millions who have served and are currently serving in the armed forces. The legion was founded in 1921 as a voice for the ex-service community and currently has around 550,000 members.

Stephen continues: "After Armistice Sunday I have to go round all the places again and collect all the tins. Then three of us sit in the Legion until around 11pm counting all the money. Three members have to be there for the counting."

Stephen, of Violet Lane, Croydon, has been a member of the Royal British Legion (RBL) since 1969 and for the last six years has held the honour of president at the West Croydon branch in Handcroft Road, Croydon.

Stephen says: "As president I attend all the meetings. My main job is being a figurehead for the work done by the legion, it is an award. I see that the legion is run properly and if I think it is not being run properly I can hold a meeting.

"The executive committee meeting is held every first Monday of the month and on the last Monday of the month is the branch meeting which anyone can attend."

Mr Thurlow also presides over the borough branches of Croydon, which stretch from Purley and Coulsdon to New Addington.

Through Stephen's work he has received several royal invitations. "I have been to the garden party at Buckingham Palace and a Christmas party at St James's Palace. I met the Queen when she opened the Queen's Gardens in Croydon and I met the Queen Mother."

On top of his presidencies at the RBL, Stephen became president of the Royal Artillery Association just over two months ago, after 14 years as chairman and then vice president.

Stephen has also been life vice president of the Burma Star Association for more than 10 years having served in Burma for four years during World War Two.

It is as chairman of the services committee for the RBL that Stephen classes as his most important role. He explains: "It is my job to go out and see who the Royal British Legion can help, either ex-service people, their husbands or wives or their children who have fallen on hard times, we can offer them a free two-week holiday."

Stephen and his wife Daphne, 80 later this month, have been married 59 years and are looking forward to celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary next year.

The couple met after Stephen returned home from Burma. He explains: "Daphne was in the Land Army and me and a mate of mine went into a pub in Egham for a drink. I chose Daphne and my mate chose her friend."

The couple have a son, aged 58, and two daughters aged 50 and 47. Apart from Yvette Thurlow, who nominated him for a Champions award in recognition of his work, the couple have five other grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Stephen said of his nomination: "I didn't know anything about it being nominated but my grand-daughter was asking me questions, she was asking me a lot of questions."

Yvette, 23, said: "Since 1986 Stephen Thurlow has collected for the Royal British Legion, over the years he has collected around £176,000 for this charity.

"Now 83-years-old he is still going strong. He is the president of the West Croydon branch, president of the borough branches of Croydon and chairman of the services committee for the RBL. He is also president of the Royal Artillery Association and vice-president of the Burma Star Association. He fought in World War Two in Burma and he is my champion and grandfather and my hero!"