PALACE TRIP FOR NORA & ISABEL
MBEs for community pair
Two women who started vital organisations in Rutherglen and Cambuslang have been honoured in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List.
Nora Dillon and Isabel Banks have been awarded MBEs for their incredible work in the community. In 1979, Nora was a founder member of the Rutherglen and Cambuslang Housing Association. She has been with them since, serving in various roles including chairwoman. Nora becomes the second member of her family to receive an MBE. Her sister, Geraldine Baird, was also honoured for her work with the association in 2013.
Isabel was one of the group who convened the first meeting of the Lightburn Elderly Association Project (LEAP).
That first meeting was held in the car of an adult education worker in 1992 but since then LEAP has gone from strength to strength, helping thousands of older people not just in Rutherglen and Cambuslang but across the whole of South Lanarkshire.
A Rutherglen woman has made it a family double after being awarded an MBE four years after her sister.
Nora Dillon, 72, was recognised for her work with the Rutherglen and Cambuslang Housing Association.
The retired teacher was a founder member of the association back in 1979.
She has served the organisation since in a variety of roles, including chairwoman, and is still a member of the committee.
It has now been revealed she has been honoured by the Queen in the New Year’s Honours List.
Despite the personal accolade, Nora said much of the credit had to go to the other volunteers she has worked with over the years.
“There are lots of other people on the committee who have been there for many years, and you can multiply that for the whole of Scotland and the UK,” she says.
“It’s also, I suppose, an acknowledgement of what we have done with the association and I am very proud of that.
“I’m very grateful but this is a recognition of the work everyone does.
“It came as a great surprise to me. I have got an idea who nominated me but I couldn’t say for sure.”
Nora was a mature student when the idea of the association was first mooted. Among the people who launched it with her was sister Geraldine Baird, who received an MBE in 2013.
Looking back on those days, Nora said: “We were trained up by Dave Anderson who is now our director.
“The first office was on Stonelaw Road and it has just grown from there.
“At the time, there was a lot of money about, you could get a 100 per cent grant and things like that.
“We started with the tenements and then expanded into Cambuslang. We are not the biggest association but over the years we have spent nearly £60 million and hopefully a lot of people are in much better housing than they were back then.”
Looking forward, Nora is confident the association can still play a key role in the Rutherglen and Cambuslang communities.
Earlier this year, the group was given planning permission for their first new project in two years, the creation of 21 flats and 16 cottage flats on the site of the former Glenroyal Nursery on Cathcart Road.
Nora said: “Homelessness is a big issue. You think it won’t always be like that but maybe it will.
“The biggest problem is finding land to develop. There’s not much around and we can’t pay market prices.
“But it is still worthwhile.”