A FAMILY is celebrating after recording the first known instance of a mother and daughter both being awarded a medal in the same Queen's Honours list.
Mairi O'Keefe, 59, becomes MBE after turning round an East Lothian respite care home hours from closure and her mother Catriona MacKinnon, 93, who is still teaching and believed to be Edinburgh City Council's oldest employee received the BEM.
Leuchie House is now a flourishing independent charity under the guidance of Mrs O'Keefe.
The success stems from staff drive and strategies such as work to make sure Leuchie House, set in an 18th century building and now backed by government funding, does not immediately look like the respite nursing home it is.
They persuaded a five-star hotel in Princes St to donate curtains and furniture including a marble reception desk.
The guests who have serious conditions such as multiple sclerosis say they feel more as though they are on holiday instead of being hospitalised so that their families can take a break.
Mrs MacKinnon, who is still teaching an adult education class, is thought to be the Scottish capital's oldest employee.
She teaches Gaelic, which was the only language she could speak before going to school.
Until recently she was tutor to Lothian Gaelic choir - she is tutor as she admits to not having a wonderful singing voice.
She is one of 13 children from a family in Eriskay and walks to church a quarter of a mile most mornings and several times a week goes to her health club in Queen Street, Edinburgh.
Mrs O'Keefe, 59, said that "it makes it even more special to share this honour at the same time as my mother" and added "she was overjoyed that we would get to share in it".
Mrs MacKinnon received her BEM from Lord Provost in a ceremony this week at Edinburgh City Chambers and Mrs O'Keefe received hers at Buckingham Palace on Friday.
Edinburgh Lord Provost Donald Wilson said: "Mrs MacKinnon has been honoured for services to the Gaelic language and culture.
"She has tirelessly promoted and taught Gaelic in Edinburgh at a time when support, interest and popularity of the language and culture in the central belt has been low.
"It is due in no small measure to her longstanding and committed teaching over the last 40 years that Edinburgh now has an active, vibrant and thriving Gaelic community."
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