The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Honours for our Covid-19 heroes
FIFE: Awards for those who have made a difference in pandemic
Fife’s coronavirus heroes are rubbing shoulders with the great and the good on a belated Queen’s Birthday Honours list that recognises those who have gone above and beyond for their communities during the pandemic.
The awards were announced later in the year than usual in order to reflect the challenges of 2020.
Recipients include businessman Collieson Briggs from Kirkcaldy, who becomes an MBE for services to vulnerable people in the community of Fife during the Covid-19 response.
The managing director of Burntisland based Briggs Marine donated to causes such as Kirkcaldy Foodbank and the Cottage Family Centre.
Nan Cook, 57, who lives in Kelty, has been awarded the BEM for ser vices to the community in Kinross during Covid-19. The same honour goes to Dalgety Bay resident Paul MacKean, head of laboratories at Babcock Rosyth, for services to the NHS, and Kirsten Urquhart, from Limekilns, for services to young people in Scotland during the pandemic
Lorraine Mullen, who was instrumental in setting up the Lochgelly Lunches Project which provides meals for up to 100 people per week who are suffering food poverty, has also been recognised with a BEM for services to the Lochgelly community during Covid-19.
People who have made exceptional contributions to society during the coronavirus pandemic have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
TV presenter Lorraine Kelly and curler Eve Muirhead are among those from other sections of society also honoured in the list.
The majority of the honours list was compiled before the pandemic but was deferred to consider nominations for people who played crucial roles during the first months of efforts to tackle Covid-19.
It has prioritised frontline and community heroes who went above and beyond their duties to help others.
Among those recognised are David Maguire, 62, from Glasgow, who repurposed his restaurant near the city’s Gartnavel Hospital to provide free food to thousands of NHS workers, vulnerable people and schoolchildren.
When he found out about the honour, Mr Maguire said: “I feel pretty overwhelmed. It took me by surprise and I’m really pleased for everybody in the organisation that I am associated with.”
Mr Maguire is made an MBE for services to the community in Glasgow during the C ovid -19 response.
Olivia Strong, 27, from Edinburgh, who raised more than £5 million for NHS charities through her Run for Heroes 5 km Challenge, said it was “really special” to be given an MBE.
She said it is for all the 1.5 million people inspired to run five kilometres, donate £5 and nominate five friends to do the same through the challenge, and the family and friends who helped set up the campaign.
Margaret Payne, 90, who climbed the height of the 731- metre mountain Suilven on her staircase to raise money for charity receives a British Empire Medal for services to the community in Lochinver.
She thanked all those who made donations, which started from £1, with the total now more than £434,000 including gift aid .“All those little donations have just built up to an enormous sum and it is amazing,” she said.
Alison Williams, a nurse who helped patients dying with coronavirus speak with their families for the last time, also receives the same medal for services to the NHS , charitable fundraising and volunteering during the pandemic.
The 41-year-old , a research nurse at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, set up her Rainbow Boxes charity at the height of the coronavirus pandemic after noticing many patients who arrived had no way of contacting loved ones.
Through social media she raised tens of thousands of pounds to provide essentials to people who found themselves suddenly in hospital with Covid-19.
Commenting on the medal, she said: “I felt very emotional and overwhelmed.”
Among those recognised in the non-Covid section of the honours list are Professor Muffy Calder, vice-principal and head of the College of Science and Engineering at Glasgow University, who is made a dame for services to research and education.
TV star Kelly is made a CBE for services to broadcasting, journalism and charity, while Muirhead becomes an MBE for services to curling.
The 30-year-old, a former junior and senior world champion who skipped her team to Olympic bronze in Sochi in 2014, told the PA news agency: “Being a skip comes with a lot of pressure and it’s been tough since I missed that shot for a medal in Pyeongchang, so to get something like this at this point in my career feels like a nice cherry on the top.”
Others honoured include Professor David John Webb, Christison professor of therapeutics and clinical pharmacology at Edinburgh University, who is made a CBE for services to clinical pharmacology research and education.
Ian Beattie, chairman of Scottish Athletics, is made an MBE for services to the sport.