International Women's Day - celebrating our women volunteers
This International Women’s Day we want to recognise and celebrate all the women volunteers who have been part of the St John Scotland family since we were founded in 1947.
As we mark our 75th anniversary this year, we’ve been looking back on the difference St John Scotland has made to individuals and communities over the years, and we owe an enormous debt to our women volunteers for their contribution.
Right from our early days in the 1940s, women St John volunteers were rolling up their sleeves, helping set up new charitable services from a standing start. They were involved in everything from organising fundraisers to finance our first services, to running the Linen Guild which supplied bed sheets and towels to our Foundation Hospital in Glasgow, which had been set up to provide affordable healthcare not yet available on the NHS.
Through the 50s, 60s and 70s, as we built and operated nursing homes and accommodations for the elderly and vulnerable, women volunteers continued to play a vital part in our operations.
One such inspiring woman was Margaret Forrest, a volunteer in Glasgow who joined St John in the 1960s. In those days, our nursing homes were run by committees of volunteers – almost unthinkable now in the days of professionalised social care – and Margaret was a lead member of the committees of several of St John’s homes in Glasgow.
She was heavily involved in the planning of the home in Mansionhouse Road, including the layout of the kitchen – the original plans for which she said must have been designed by a man, who had never had to work in one!
Margaret not only helped to run the St John nursing home on Mansionhouse Road, her support went as far as making jars of homemade marmalade and cakes for special birthdays for the elderly residents.
Margaret dedicated decades of her life to volunteering with St John Scotland, and even by the 1980s she was not slowing down. In the early days of the Glasgow marathon, Margaret set up a stall to sell burgers to the runners and spectators, raising money for St John Scotland.
Margaret is just one of thousands of women volunteers who have been part of St John Scotland, supporting communities and individuals, since 1947.
Today, we thank the women who are serving their communities as St John Scotland volunteers across the country: our Patient Transport drivers, CPR volunteers, defibrillator champions, Community First Responders, blood donation volunteers, committee chairs, treasurers, secretaries, and fundraisers, and all who make a difference... thank you!
