Time is becoming more precious. Treatments are becoming more frequent and sleep is demanding more hours each day. After nearly nine years as a director of Glasgow’s Prince and Princes of Wales Hospice I have stepped down.
Only now, on reflection, I realise that the hospice has been like a golden thread woven through the past three decades of my life – a brilliant and constantly recurring thread of involvement, direction, purpose and emotion.
It seems to stitch together like fate.
It started in 1990 when Charles and Diana visited the new hospice in Carlton Place on the south bank of the River Clyde. It was funded by the people of Glasgow with campaigning support from the city’s Evening Times newspaper of which I was news editor.
In 2000, I left newspapers for a career with the NHS, as director of communications based in Glasgow. In this role I would lend professional support to the hospice management team and so maintain my link.
Away from work, and following a divorce in 2008, I met up with a woman I had known since primary one at school in Thornliebank. She was living in Yorkshire and I was in Kilmarnock – the odds of us meeting were extremely low, let alone falling in love and marrying several years later.
Back in 1999 – unbeknown to me – Laura had married Archie in the hospice as he received palliative care for terminal cancer. This emotionally charged service was to create her own very personal golden thread link to the hospice.
It was almost nine years ago, when invited down to Carlton Place to advise on a tricky PR issue, that I was invited to join the PPWH board as a volunteer director. They wanted my skills as the huge task of raising £21 million for a brand-new, purpose-built hospice was progressed.
And what a journey it’s been since then – huge challenges overcome and fundraising records smashed. I’ve be delighted to do my own bit to help to raise money – more than £25,000 in my time as a volunteer.
Two years ago, Laura was beside me when the new hospice in Bellahouston Park was officially opened. What an emotional and proud day for us both. When I left the NHS to go freelance in 2019, I decided to stay on as a hospice volunteer director. Two months later I was myself diagnosed with terminal cancer and I think my involvement with the NHS and the hospice has helped me deal with the reality that I now face.
What a privilege it has been – all those woven connections, achievements and personal links. Such a wonderful storyline running through so many years of my professional and personal life, intertwining with Laura’s own golden thread to the hospice.
Ally McLaws is a freelance specialist in writing, business marketing and reputation management. See the full range of services and view all previous columns at www.mclawsconsultancy.com
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