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Age Scotland awards special – meet the winners
Celebrating the return of the Age Scotland awards
After a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we were thrilled to celebrate the return of the Age Scotland awards. Once again, we received nominations from amazing groups and individuals across the country who are doing inspiring work to support older people, tackle loneliness and isolation and offer a range of activities to improve older people’s lives in their communities.
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Kaye Adams presented the awards | Kaye with Wing Hong Chinese Elderly Centre winners
The judges were impressed with the high standard of entries. It seems like the challenges of the past two years have resulted in our groups and members redoubling their efforts to bring joy and purpose back into the lives of older people who suffered so much during the pandemic and that was reflected in the strong nominations. This year’s worthy winners, who come from communities across Scotland, received their awards from broadcaster – and Strictly Come Dancing contestant - Kaye Adams at a ceremony in Glasgow last month. What a pleasure it was to be able to meet the proud recipients face to face and say thank you for the tremendous work they do daily for older people. On the following pages we introduce our Age Scotland award winners for 2022. Well done everyone!
The winner of the Jess Barrow Award for Campaigning and Influencing is the inspiring Anne McCreadie, chairperson of the Merkinch Community Centre in Inverness. Anne began her volunteering career as a young single mum to four children in 1976 when plans for the community centre were being drawn up. Now aged 82, she still puts in a 40-hour week and is a great role model to everyone around her. Anne took over as chairperson of the Inverness Community Centre in the 1990s and despite being shy, she rose to the occasion and has flourished in the role. She has embraced change and overseen the development of the centre into a welcoming place for older people, people with disabilities, and younger people attending after school groups. Regulars at the centre describe it as somewhere with strong community spirit which helps them feel less lonely and isolated. During Anne’s time in charge, the centre has been renovated and modernised and now boasts 62,000 visits a year - a testament to her dedicated work. In 2015, Highland council earmarked the centre for closure but after a strongly worded defence by Anne at a packed public meeting, the council shelved its plan, and the centre was saved.
The Cowal befrienders tackling loneliness among older people
The Cowal Elderly Befrienders (CEB) are deserving winners of the Patrick Brooks Best Working Partnership award for the work they do to support older people in Dunoon and the wider Cowal peninsula. The group engages with older people in their local communities through group activities including reminiscence, crafts and singing. CEB also support individuals and groups of older people to go out for coffee and lunch and they pay home visits too. Many of the older people who are helped by CEB are living with dementia and the group visits them at home, as part of their valuable work to tackle loneliness and isolation in the community. The service offered by CEB provides much-need respite for carers, giving them an hour or two a week to take a break from their caring responsibilities. During the Covid-19 pandemic, CEB provided a lifeline shopping and prescription collection service for older people who were shielding. Like many organisations supporting older people, CEB sometimes struggle to meet demand, receiving an average of two or three new referrals a week. The men and women of the CEB rise to the occasion and deliver a service that makes a real difference to the lives of older people.
Harlawhill Day Centre offers the hand of friendship
The winner of the award for Services to Older People is the wonderful team behind the Harlawhill Day Centre, a long-established charity based in Prestonpans. For 30 years, the Harlawhill centre has been the go-to place for older people in the East Lothian community in need of advice, guidance and assistance. The charity has fostered a strong sense of community spirit supporting older people, those living with dementia and offering respite to carers. The team, from the manager to the drivers, are described as natural carers for whom nothing is too much trouble. From fundraising at the weekend to providing emergency respite at short notice, the Harlawhill team work tirelessly for their clients. The centre’s closure due to Covid was a blow for the older people of Prestonpans but the staff continued to offer support through care, friendship, and practical and emotional assistance for those in need. The team also organised a network of telephone buddies to relieve the boredom of lockdown and ensure everyone had someone to talk to. The grateful feedback from clients, families and carers showed how important these services were. Reopening the centre in 2021 was a landmark moment and the team continues to enrich the lives of older people throughout the community.
Celebrating 50 years of Age Concern Hurlford
Age Scotland’s Member Group of the Year award goes to Age Concern Hurlford which has been providing services, friendship and community spirit to older people in Ayrshire for 50 years. What began with a chance encounter in the local Co-op in the early 1970s between a councillor and a church minister, where they voiced their concern that there wasn’t anything in the village to engage older people, has grown into a popular and very active club. There are now more than 100 members from the village and beyond who get together to play bowls, knit and natter, enjoy live entertainment and have a cup of tea and a blether. The club also organises bus trips, a Christmas dinner and lunches for special occasions – there’s a big lunch planned to celebrate the group’s 50th anniversary later this year. Aware of the importance of keeping people informed, Age Concern Hurlford holds information days to talk about issues that affect older people, such as the recent introduction of integrated fire and smoke alarms. The group arranged installation of the alarms too. In the past 50 years, Age Concern Hurlford has become a place to make memories, share friendship and have fun. Here’s to the next 50 years!
Margaret is our Volunteer of the Year
The Age Scotland Volunteer of the Year award goes to Margaret Berry from Larbert and Stenhousemuir Age Concern who has dedicated herself to helping older people in the Falkirk area since 1978. In the early days, Margaret, a working mother of two, began by calling round older people in the area to find out if they required disability aids. For the past 15 years Margaret has been Larbert and Stenhousemuir Age Concern’s treasurer – a role that made good use of her skills as a professional bookkeeper. Margaret is also an excellent baker and has provided catering for many of the group’s most popular events, including the weekly Social Hour. An annual highlight is the Christmas party where Margaret always brings meringues – one for everyone, plus a few extra which never go to waste. She is the person who buys, wraps and arranges distribution of Christmas presents for all the group members, a service that is greatly appreciated by the recipients. During the pandemic, the group sadly lost some members to Covid-19. Margaret attended as many of the funerals as she could, which meant a lot to the bereaved families. She also kept spirits up among group members by delivering books and jigsaws and calling them for a chat.
The Wing Hong Chinese Elderly Centre in Glasgow (WHCEC) is the winner of Age Scotland’s Inspiration award. Established in 1989 to enhance and promote equal opportunities, the charity helps older Chinese people to access social care, health, welfare and housing services. Through its provision of day care and community services, the centre also reduces loneliness and isolation and supports older Chinese people to live independently. It advocates for its service users too, by raising awareness of the specific needs of older Chinese people. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the centre helped its members overcome language barriers to stay fully informed about the fast-changing Scottish Government regulations. The charity team also provided hot Chinese meals to ensure older people were receiving nutritious and familiar food when they were unable to shop. Service users found the language support, phone calls and the Chinese meal deliveries invaluable. One older person told the charity he had noone else to turn to during lockdown, as his family lived in England and couldn’t travel. He didn’t know what he would have done without them. The WHCEC forged strong bonds with its members during the pandemic and word must have spread, because the charity received 60 requests to join once events resumed in 2021.
Check in, Cash out – don’t miss out
Every year, older people in Scotland are missing out on hundreds of millions of pounds worth of social security payments – such as Pension Credit, Council Tax Reduction and Attendance Allowance. 123,000 eligible Scottish households are estimated to be missing out on Pension Credit alone, adding up to a whopping £332 million which is not getting to the older people on lower incomes who are entitled to receive it. As the cost of living rises, ensuring that older people claim every penny of social security they are entitled to has become even more vital. Not only does this put extra money in their pockets, but it could open the door to them receiving further financial support from the government to offset the cost of living. Our Check in, Cash out campaign aims to raise awareness and increase take-up of the social security available to help older people live well. We can help you to find out if you might qualify – and it could take as little as 10 minutes to get an idea of this using our online benefits calculator.
I didn’t realise just how much Pension Credit was worth. I’m glad I checked! It will make a real difference to me.
How you can check in to find out if you can cash out
Contact our helpline for a free benefits entitlement check and advice on how to claim – call 0800 12 44 222, Monday to Friday 9am-5pm Find information on social security payments, including eligibility and how to apply, using our free guides at www.age.scot/benefitguides Sign up to one of our free training workshops to find out more about social security at www.age.scot/benefitworkshops Use our online benefits calculator to find out what you could be owed. It’s free to use and the details you provide are kept anonymous. Visit www.age.scot/benefitscalculator Even if this isn’t relevant to you, please share these resources with friends, family, and others in your community to help us ensure no older person misses out on what they are entitled to.
If you work with or support older people or if you attend a group who you think would benefit from resources to boost awareness of social security, get in touch today by emailing campaigns@agescotland.org.uk or call us on 0333 323 2400. Find out more at www.age.scot/checkincashout
