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Queen’s Birthday Honours: Highland Hospice volunteer of the year Pat Ross ‘surprised’ to receive BEM

Pat Ross has received a BEM for services to charity. Picture by Jason Hedges
Pat Ross has received a BEM for services to charity. Picture by Jason Hedges

Pat Ross is so dedicated to Highland Hospice that she got a flat in Inverness after a bus timetable change threatened her hours.

When the local timetable changed, impacting her journey from Gruinard Bay to the hospice she decided to get a second place in Inverness so she could continue volunteering.

The 69-year-old started volunteering with the hospice in 2004, working in the cafe and library before moving into their offices.

In 2019, she was selected as volunteer of the year out of the 100,000 who support Hospice UK.

Now she has received a BEM for her services to charity, an honour she described as a “complete surprise”.

Great Wilderness Challenge

In 2005, Ms Ross moved into the role of secretary for the Great Wildnerness Challenge, which will this year send people on a 25-mile sponsored race from Dundonnell to Poolewe.

It attracts around 500 competitors from all over the world and acts as a year-round job for Ms Ross from collecting entry forms to coordinating with charities.

The event will return in August after 2020’s race had to be cancelled and last year’s was held in a virtual format.

Pat Ross has been volunteering with Highland Hospice since 2004. Picture by Jason Hedges

‘It’s such a friendly place’

Ms Ross said she was inspired to work with the charity after her dad died in a hospice.

She added: “The people are lovely, they are so nice. It’s such a friendly place, I think people often think a hospice is a sad place but it’s not, it’s lovely and you feel as if you’re really part of it.”

Over the years, her work has led to more than £4 million being donated to Scottish charities, with Highland Hospice being the main beneficiary.

She didn’t expect her work to lead to an honour, saying: “I just do the work, I was quite surprised really that people think so much of it. I’m just happy to be able to help them.”

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