Liz Odell, who delivers ShelterBox aid to the world’s worst disasters and conflicts, is the daughter of the late Jack Odell OBE, co-founder of the iconic Matchbox toy cars brand.

‘I was born into fortunate circumstances, and volunteering lets me give something back to society.’ 

Born in Totteridge, North London, and schooled in Barnet, Liz found herself working in her father’s factory in Hackney – home of the famous Matchbox die-cast metal toys. These days Liz finds slightly bigger boxes figure large in her life. 

Jack Odell was the master engineer and model-maker awarded an OBE for his role in giving the UK one of its most iconic toy brands. And after founding Matchbox he started a series of collectable Lledo vintage car models – ‘Odell’ spelt backwards.  

But after occasional six month spells in the Matchbox factory, who would have thought that years later boxes would again loom so large in Liz’s life?

Now she delivers iconic green boxes – albeit much larger and heavier ones – packed with shelter aid for families caught up in the world’s biggest disasters and war zones.

Liz is a ShelterBox Response Volunteer, giving freely of her time and talent to help those caught up in disasters such as Pacific cyclones, Nepalese earthquakes, African floods and Philippine hurricanes.

She has deployed 17 times across South America, Asia and Africa, as well as being a speaker and fundraiser.  

Liz’s life journey from Matchbox to ShelterBox is a fascinating story that took her out of the capital, to her current home in Gloucestershire, and then all to disaster-hit places all over the world. 

Liz recalls working in the ‘Orange Tree’ pub in Totteridge in the long hot summer of 1976, when the duckpond dried up and the pub ran out of lager, such was the demand!

Between 1976 and 1981 she studied at universities in France and Loughborough, supplemented by occasional work in Hackney at the Matchbox factory. Then she did a career swerve into retail, at House of Fraser, the Army and Navy stores at Victoria, Hornes menswear in Oxford Street, and as area manager for Pierre Cardin.  

It wasn’t until 1990 that Liz moved to Gloucestershire to bring up her family – she has two sons in their twenties who now live in Australia and London. Until 2009 Liz worked as a stockbroker and investment adviser, and later at Stroud and Cotswold Citizens Advice, until volunteering for ShelterBox fired her imagination.  

Liz is also a Rotarian, founder member and past President of Nailsworth Rotary Club. It was Rotary’s international project partnership with ShelterBox that joined the dots – or rather the boxes – for Liz.  

She says, ‘I applied to be a responder after seeing a presentation by a ShelterBox speaker, which was a ‘eureka’ moment for me. I was born into fortunate circumstances, and ShelterBox gives me the opportunity to give something back to society.’  

After an arduous year’s training, she made it through the selection process.

‘My first deployment was to Haiti, following the earthquake in 2010, and was a baptism of fire.

'I had never seen such devastation, and the lack of infrastructure and living in a tent on the side of the airport runway made it an especially challenging trip from a personal perspective.’ 

‘I chose ShelterBox because I can see the whole process from beginning to end – from fundraising to assessments, logistics and, finally, delivering the aid to those who need it most – families who have lost everything.

'I can see the care that's taken with donors’ money to ensure aid reaches those who need it most.

'That’s what makes it a satisfying volunteer role that I hope to continue fulfilling as long as I’m fit and healthy.’ 

Liz has just returned from the South American coastal region of Peru, working in a team taking ShelterBox aid to families who have lived through some of the most torrential flooding in the country’s history, triggered by the El Nino Pacific storm phenomenon.  

Liz’s colleagues are distributing boxes containing essentials such as water carriers, ground sheets, mosquito nets, and solar lamps, as well as 1,000 ShelterKits containing tarpaulins and tools to help rebuild or to create temporary shelters.

The ShelterBox teams are in partnership with World Vision and the Rotary Clubs of Trujillo, who provide volunteers to help with distribution and to train the recipients in using the equipment. The Peru response is an impressive volunteer operation.  

Never one to let the grass grow, even in her ‘down time’ ever-active Liz enjoys golf, gym, skiing and walking.

She hiked to Machu Picchu in 2005, up Kilimanjaro in 2008, and to Everest Base Camp in 2014.

Last year, she completed a UK Coast to Coast walk of 194 miles, and this year she plans to walk the Ridgeway (87 miles) and the West Highland Way (96 miles). 

But for now, this powerhouse volunteer has been quite busy enough helping the flood survivors of Peru. The aid has been packed into smaller-than-usual ‘Totem’ green ShelterBoxes.

So yet another size of box enters the Odell life story.

NOTES TO EDITORS 

See the Matchbox factory on this 1960s Pathe newsreel.  

Photos of Liz Odell are free to use in the context of this press release, but please credit ©ShelterBox.  

There are now almost 85 million people around the world forced from their homes due to natural disasters or conflict, the greatest number since WW2. ShelterBox is a UK charity, and a world authority on providing innovative, rapid and practical shelter to families in some of the world’s hardest-to-reach places and most devastated disaster zones. Since its start in 2000 it’s helped more than one million people worldwide rebuild their lives, and it now has affiliate ShelterBox operations across Europe, Africa, Americas and Asia. More info at www.shelterbox.org.