Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Honours Hospice Volunteers
Kathy Leece and Freda Dennis
outside Buckingham Palace
Monday 2nd June 2003
In September 2002 we were made aware of a newly-created award launched to commemorate Her Majesty's Golden Jubilee, which "...recognizes the vital role played by hundreds of thousands of 'unsung heroes' of the community and voluntary world and emphasizes the importance of continuing recognition of their work." The award is to cover the United Kingdom, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. The criteria for nominations were:
Outstanding achievement by groups...who volunteer their own time to enhance and improve the quality of life and opportunity for individuals of other groups in the community.
The organisation / group has evolved locally and is locally run, has a proven track record of active involvement in the community over a period of three years or more for the social, economic or environmental well being of local individuals or groups:
is well designed to meet a particular need
has added significant value by directly providing community-focused voluntary activities of a very high quality
has generated a high level of goodwill and respect amongst those it serves and the community as a whole.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth presenting
a signed
Golden
Jubilee Award certificate to Freda Dennis, on behalf
of all
Hospice Volunteers. Cathy Leece is seen in the background
receiving the Glass Award from HRH Prince Philip.
Our Volunteers,
going back to day one, seemed to fit these criteria
perfectly and to fully justify such recognition, they were
nominated by Geoff Collier - Hospice General Manager at the time - in September
2002. The nomination was endorsed by Nadene
Crowther MBE - Hospice President - and by Ian Galloway, new Volunteer
and recent 'user' of Hospice services
following
the death of
his wife from cancer in September 2001.
In April
this year we
heard,
following
a local assessment,
our nomination had been short listed, and forwarded for consideration
by the
Queen's Golden
Jubilee Award
Committee, which was to select
200 winners from
across UK, CI & IOM
for recommendation
to the Queen
by the Home Secretary.
On 14th May we heard
by letter from
the Awards Office
of our success.
Our Hospice Care
Volunteers are one of just
fourteen winning
groups
invited
to attend Buckingham Palace
in person to
receive their award from
the
Queen, two representatives
from each of
the fourteen chosen groups.
The difficulty
then was to decide
which two of
our 488 Volunteers
should have the
honour of accepting
the Award
on behalf of
their colleagues.
The General Manager
and Volunteer
Coordinator, in consultation
with the President,
agreed our two
representatives.
Cathy Leece was
one
of the earliest
Volunteers, recruited by
Peter Vickers and Nadene Crowther at Sydney Mount in 1985,
and still works
two days every
week providing
clerical
and secretarial
support to our
Bereavement Service.
Freda Dennis
is also one of our longest-serving
Volunteers, and
represents three
facets
of Hospice Volunteers:
Hospice Shops,
the Regional
Committees/Support Groups and also
her
very hardworking
husband who,
as well as being a
Trustee for many
years, also volunteers
an enormous amount
of his
time
working on
our excellent Hospice Shops
website and for
Share the Care
Ltd.
Freda Dennis and Kathy Leece
back home pose with the Glass
Jubilee Award for IOM Newspapers.
Cathy and Freda take up the story:
"We heard we had been chosen to represent Hospice on Friday 16th May, over two weeks before we were to travel to London, and that the whole matter was to remain a secret until Monday 2nd June - the day we were due at Buckingham Palace. To say we were 'shell-shocked' is an understatement and, apart from being very honoured, we felt understandably apprehensive.
"All our travel arrangements had been made for us so it was off to Gatwick on Sunday 1st June and to an hotel not far from the Palace. On Monday we were due at the Palace at 12.30 pm. The weather was kind so we walked across Green Park, presented our passes at the entrance, were given name and organisation badges, and ushered through the main archway into the quadrangle and to the main glass-fronted entrance, up a very wide red-carpeted staircase into a picture gallery.
"There were twenty-four of us to be presented to Her Majesty and His Royal Highness Prince Philip, all arranged in a horseshoe line facing the windows overlooking the gardens. In front of us were two large tables the left with purple boxes and the right a neat pile of papers.
The Queen's Golden Jubilee
Award 2003 for voluntary service
by groups in the Community.
"The Queen and Prince Philip, who had come directly from Westminster Abbey, commenced the presentation ceremony, The Queen handing us all a signed commemorative certificate, and Prince Philip an engraved glass award featuring a Crown and the wording; 'The Queen's Golden Jubilee Award 2003 for voluntary service by groups in the Community.' Prince Philip warned us all of the Award's weight and to be very careful.
"All too quickly our audience, and few words with The Queen and Prince Philip, was over and we were all taken to Lancaster House for a reception with 'Her Majesty's Government' represented by The Lord Filkin CBE - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Home Department, and others from his office. It was only then we had the opportunity to talk to other recipients of the Award and to discover a wide variety of activities and charities they represented - some large but many small. All lovely people and it was a pleasure to meet them.
"So, back to Gatwick and to the Isle of Man. It seemed like a dream and took some days for reality to settle once more. However, we are both very conscious that we were but representatives of almost 500 Hospice Care Isle of Man Volunteers and felt that, in a way, they were all with us in Buckingham Palace on Monday 2nd June."
The award and certificate will be on permanent display in the Strang Hospice.