Scots charity: Queen’s legacy will be one of ‘selflessness and compassion’

The Queen’s legacy will be one of selflessness and compassion, according to one of the many charities she was a patron of.

Jane-Claire Judson, chief executive at Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland (CHSS), thanked Her Majesty for the “remarkable service and outstanding contribution” she had given across seven decades.

“As our patron, the Queen played a leading role in our mission to make sure that there is no life half lived in Scotland,” she said. “Over the last 70 years, her support of our work has helped hundreds of thousands of families get the support they need to live life after a stroke, chest or heart condition.

“Her Majesty championed volunteering and recognised the incredible impact our volunteers have on the lives of people living in our communities.

“Her legacy of selflessness and compassion will always live on in our work; she was the embodiment of no life half lived. We will never forget her support and will always be thankful for her commitment to help people living with chest, heart and stroke conditions in Scotland.”

© Supplied by Chest, Heart and Str

Paul Okroj, Director of People Driven Development at CHSS, met the monarch when he accepted the Diamond Jubilee Volunteering Award on the charity’s behalf in 2012.

CHSS were one of 60 recipients of the highest award given to volunteer groups in the UK.

He said: “She’s been the most amazingly dedicated Queen, the most amazing patron to our own organisation and lots of other charities.

“Her patronage has been incredibly important because we rely on almost 7,000 volunteers. She’s been a champion of volunteering and communities across Scotland and the UK and has recognised the support that people give to charities like us to enable us to do the things that we do.

“Our volunteers deliver our services, they help raise our income, they’re ambassadors in the community. The Queen herself was an amazing stalwart for raising the profile of volunteering. We couldn’t exist without our volunteers in many ways.”

Okroj, 51, from Dunfermline, recalled meeting the Queen after receiving notification from the Cabinet Office and Buckingham Palace that CHSS were one of the organisations to be recognised.

“You stand in a line-up and then meet her and it’s like you’re the most important person in that room while she’s engaging with you genuinely, asking questions about the organisation and where we’d travelled from,” he said.

“The award was for the organisation, but it’s actually for the volunteers who contribute their time and amazing commitment.

“The humanity was quite incredible, she obviously met countless people on a daily basis but the warmth and engagement came across, and she had the most endearing smile when you’re standing there.

“We support thousands of people on a daily basis and being able to have the ability to say that the Queen was our patron does mean a lot to our colleagues, volunteers, donors and supporters.”

On her legacy, Okroj said: “It was her investment in individuals’ health and wellbeing, she supported what matters to people.

“The ongoing legacy is about the acts of kindness that she undertook and that’s what volunteers do on a daily basis. She promoted those during her reign and was the epitome of it.”