Retired Shotts charity chief receives British Empire Medal in King's Birthday Honours List

The driving force behind the success of a Shotts-based charity has been recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours List.

June Vallance was appointed project manager of Getting Better Together (GBT) in 2001 and oversaw the remarkable rise of the health initiative which offers a wide range of services from its base at Shotts Healthy Living Centre.

She retired back in 2021 but was recognised in last week’s King’s Birthday Honours List receiving the British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to the Third Sector and to the community in North Lanarkshire.

Speaking to Lanarkshire Live this week, June, 70, said: “I was gobsmacked. I was delighted but to get something like that and keep it a secret for four weeks was very difficult.

“I loved my job in Shotts. We were like a family and I still speak to a lot of the staff .

“This is just the icing on the cake.

“When I retired my grandson had just been born so it was a good time to finish off but I still miss it.”

When June first took charge of GBT she immediately began forging partnerships within the Shotts community by initiating innovative and popular activities such as family swim tickets at the leisure centre and exotic fruit tastings at schools and nurseries.

The early days of GBT laid the foundation for the years ahead with lots of hard work and exciting developments, moving from Shotts Health Centre to the Healthy Living Centre where the cyber cafe (as it was originally called) and the food co-op were really busy every day.

As the workforce and numbers of volunteers increased in size more innovative programmes got under way with youth work and Saturday Sportscene, community transport, older peoples services, citizens advice and smoking cessation classes.

There was even a visit to GBT from HRH The Princess Royal in 2010 as well as the purchasing of Springhill Hall in an asset transfer deal which has paved the way for an exciting new development in that part of the town.

During the pandemic, volunteers delivered thousands of meals and hundreds of food parcels to those who were isolating or in real need, offered transport to vaccination centres and hospital appointments and as soon as it was able to normal service was resumed.

June added: “When we first started I was working in the health centre so when we got our new premises that made a real difference.

“That really got the ball rolling and then we worked with various partner agencies. The transport team is just one aspect of the team which was immense. It shows such real community spirit.

“There is still a lot of work to be done and there is still lots of challenges but GBT has made a real difference to the community.”

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