VOLUNTEERS are an integral part of Visit York’s tourist information services, located on Museum Street in the shadow of the Minster – they’re a diverse bunch, too.

In particular, two members of the volunteer workforce, demonstrate just how diverse – the tourist information centre’s oldest volunteer and, until recently, its youngest, who has now been taken on as a paid member of staff.

The oldest is Lewin Harris, a 78-year-old retired project engineer, who has given his spare time to the centre for five years.

Originally from Doncaster, Lewin has worked all over the world – in places as far-flung as Algeria, the Bahamas, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and Iran, which is where his late wife Lyda came from.

Lewin and his wife decided to retire to York because they had always loved the city, and he began volunteering after Lyda passed away.

It’s clear that Lewin loves the work and his colleagues at the tourist information centre: “It’s a great crowd, really friendly and I love meeting people from other parts of the world.”

It is also clear that the other staff love having Lewin around, too, with volunteer co-ordinator Joyanne Ball saying: “Lewin is everybody’s grandad.”

His colleague, Aythami Viera, is a 27-year-old student from Gran Canaria who volunteered at the centre for around five months before becoming a full member of staff.

He admits that he struggled with the dialect at first, but is slowly getting used to it – although taking phone messages can still cause a bit of a problem.

Aythami came to the UK on an internship with the Erasmus programme, with the intention of improving his English.

He originally lived with a British family in Reading, but settled in York – mainly because he is fascinated by the history of the city, especially its Viking past.

Of moving to another country, Aythami says: “The people here are lovely. I was worried about what people would think with Brexit, but I feel at home.”

He says that tourists are surprised to find a non-Brit working at the information centre, but that it only adds to the centre's resources.

In fact, both Aythami and Lewin cite the diversity of the 28 volunteers at Visit York as one of its major strengths, with people of all ages and nationalities (including Chinese, German and Spanish), which ultimately helps them to offer a better service to the tourists who pass through the centre.

Joyanne says: "We are very lucky to have such a devoted and knowledgeable group of people, who are passionate about sharing their love of the city with visitors and residents alike."

It is obvious that both volunteers find huge satisfaction in serving York and are very proud of the work that they and their colleagues do, with both men describing it as a family.

Lewin is especially pleased when tourists come back and tell him how much they love the city, but is equally happy when local people of his own age pop in for a chat.

For further information go to www.visityork.org, or @visityork on Twitter.