Community group is in the running for health award

The awards are run in association with the Scottish Government and the Daily Record and the Point and Sandwick Trust volunteers include everyone who was involved in the volunteering since lockdown began – from leafletting to delivering meals to befriending.

The Scottish Health Awards celebrate “the exceptional achievements of unsung heroes within health and social care services” and the People’s Choice category is “specifically to recognise our individuals and teams who have responded so magnificently to the challenge of caring for people during the pandemic”.

The judging panel noted the quality and strength of nominations this year so it’s a real tribute to have been shortlisted.

The winner of the People’s Choice Award will be decided by a public vote, which closes on November 6.

For more information on how to vote, visit the awards website at www.scottishhealthawards.com or follow Point and Sandwick Trust on social media.

This year’s events will take place virtually on Wednesday, December 9 and the public are urged to vote for the volunteers who responded so magnificently to the call for help to make the pandemic services projects possible.

A recent report produced by Alasdair Nicholson into the outcomes of the community wind farm organisation’s pandemic response revealed in black and white how many people had been helped by its pandemic services.

These include the provision of 5,110 cooked meals, 3,373 emergency food parcels, 1,556 grocery deliveries, with a total of 260 households across 30 settlements benefiting from some form of help. The main beneficiaries were in the 71-80 and 81-90 age brackets and a total of 5,220 miles were covered by the delivery service drivers.

The pandemic response, which also included telephone befriending, was made possible with grants of £55,600 from Highlands and Islands Enterprise through the Supporting Communities Fund for a food and medicine delivery service to vulnerable people and £55,525 for outreach telephone support and a cooked meal service from the Scottish Government’s Wellbeing Fund.

But none of it would have been possible without the volunteers – an army of whom had answered the call to help.

In all, 41 people volunteered with the pandemic response – including 17 volunteers who delivered the seven-days-a-week meals and eight who were trained up for the telephone befriending project.

Angus McCormack, honorary president of Point and Sandwick Trust, said the shortlisting in the Scottish Health Awards was an appropriate recognition of their contribution.

He said: “I am delighted that our team from Point and Sandwick should be recognised in this way because I’ve seen the work for myself. I’ve seen all of it operating and I’m hugely impressed by what they have done.

“It’s always pleasing when the work of volunteers in a community is recognised in this way because volunteering is really hard work. There isn’t necessarily going to be anyone at the end of the day saying ‘oh well done’ or anything like that.

“It’s the pleasure you yourself get from it and the feel good factor. It’s very much something that lies within yourself.”

Angus said he hoped that “projects of this nature” would be able to continue to happen in the Point and Sandwick area, now they have begun, and could be built on for the future.