Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Queen’s honours for north-east charity

Queens Awards for Volunteering was presented by Lord Provost George Adam to Dorothy Leith (left) and Elma Gauld
Queens Awards for Volunteering was presented by Lord Provost George Adam to Dorothy Leith (left) and Elma Gauld

A north-east charity has been honoured with two prestigious awards from the Queen for its services to the community.

VSA volunteering charity bagged two Queen’s Awards for Voluntary Service – one of the highest possible achievements for a charity in the UK.

At a special ceremony at VSA’s headquarters at the Castlegate yesterday, Lord Provost George Adam presented the honours to Dorothy Leith and Elma Gauld in recognition of their years of hard work at the charity’s contact centre and Mercat bookshop.

Mrs Leith is the longest serving volunteer of VSA’s contact centre, which provides an informal meeting place for children and their estranged parents following divorce.

She said: “I’ve volunteered at the contact centre for the last 28 years.

“It’s a safe haven for the children, and we try to create a very happy atmosphere for them.

“It’s usually fathers that we deal with. We take them into the centre and make sure they’re relaxed and comfortable, because some of them won’t have seen their children for quite some time, so it’s very, very frightening for them.”

Mrs Leith said she was thrilled to collect the honour on behalf of the team.

“It’s a massive award for us, it’s just fantastic to win,” she said.

“I got to visit Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s garden party, where we got to see the Queen herself, Prince Phillip, and Nicola Sturgeon, it was such an amazing atmosphere.”

VSA’s Mercat bookshop scored its award thanks to its 40-strong team of regular volunteers, who work with adults with mental health issues to run the store.

Volunteer Simon Dyson said: “Receiving the award is very important to everybody in the workshop. It’s nice to be recognised by Her Majesty the Queen, and we’re thrilled.

“As volunteers, we don’t seek to get something out of this, we give up our free time to do it because we want to, ecause we want to give something back to the community.”