Neighbours in East Kilbride look out for each other

I don’t like all the publicity, she tells me. It’s not just her, it’s a team.

Ina is one of East Kilbride’s army of volunteers, the community champions who give up time and help to make what started as a housing experiment what it is today.

Of course the town has its problems – not least the recently-proposed closure of the Muller dairy, with the loss of 131 jobs.

No one is suggesting it’s paradise. But, as East Kilbride approaches its 70th birthday next year, the place many predicted would end up a ghetto has become somewhere people are happy to bring up their kids and spend their lives.

Not bad for somewhere dubbed a fool’s paradise by a Glasgow Corporation bigwig back in East Kilbride’s early days.

Many believe it’s thanks to the thriving community spirit.

That spirit was formed decades ago with the help of the two Georges, Young and Wallace. They were at the helm of East Kilbride Development Corporation and devoted a huge amount of energy and passion to their town.

Both gave up free time to support charity work and helped East Kilbride become what it is today.

Human dynamo Ina is a great example of the legacy of the two Georges.

Almost 40 years ago, she was persuaded to go to a meeting about the town’s newly-formed community council.

She went, with the aim of nominating someone willing to give up some free time to run it.

That would be it. Job done.

As it turns out, she was nominated. Four decades on, she’s still volunteering with the community council and East Kilbride Community Transport (EKCT).

The EKCT provides bus services for dozens of groups and clubs across the town and beyond.

It’s lifeline for those in the community who otherwise would not get out, providing transport for toddlers to centenarians.

And Ina keeps it all running like clockwork.

It’s a full-time job. Ina’s at her desk in the Murray Owen Centre by nine every morning. In the afternoon, she works from home.

And she doesn’t get paid a penny.

“If we weren’t here, some of the people would never get out,” Ina explains.

“I remember we started picking up one lady to take her to the club for the visually impaired. It was the first time she’d been out of the house in four years. Four years!”

That’s what keeps Ina going. She stresses her work is non-political. But she feels saddened that the vulnerable and lonely have come to rely so much on volunteers.

Volunteers at Murray Owen Centre, East Kilbride. Pic shows (L-R): Harry McInally, Rena Sutherland, Jim & Margaret Morrison, Ina and Jim Cummings (Andrew Cawley/DC Thomson)

“It’s terrible that some of these people are depending on us to get out maybe just once a week,” she says. “Without us, they might not see anyone.”

Ina’s friend Margaret Morrison nods in agreement. She’ll never forget the day she stood with husband James in a hospital in Glasgow to be told James was losing his sight.

“It was a complete life-change, but we were on our own,” she remembers.

“Jim had to give up work, to stop driving, he wasn’t even able to read. All the things he loved.

“And yet we had no idea where to turn – no one told us what help might be available, or what benefits we could get.”

So began Margaret’s quest to help others. She became involved with the visually impaired group to help other Jims in the area.

She helped develop it into a one-stop shop where people could find out what help was available.

She saw her involvement as a temporary measure. Sixteen years later, she’s still there. Jim is a member of the club, and tells me he enjoys the banter, the company.

Rena Sutherland, of the Happy Corner Club, for stroke victims, tells a similar story.

“I thought I’d try helping them out for a wee while,” she says. “That was 25 years ago.”

Many would agree East Kilbride’s Greenhills area isn’t the one of the most prosperous in the town.

But they’ve got a fantastic new playground – thanks to fundraising by kids from the local community youth club. They raised an incredible £200,000.

John Park, who’s involved with the group, has a theory about why there’s such a thriving community spirit.

“East Kilbride as we know it was created with overspill from Glasgow,” he says. “There were people coming from the tenements, from real deprivation, and they were left to get on with it. And there was a ‘let’s make this work’ attitude.”

The town’s Calderglen High School runs a befriending project, which teams up two pupils with an elderly member of the community.

The scheme, run by Avril Anderson and Calderglen depute Odette Frazer, is award-winning.

“We have weekly social visits and we really do get to know each other as friends,” says 18-year-old Ewan Martin.

Catriona Maybury, also 18, agrees. “We might do some household tasks, or just chat.

“We’ve met some amazing people who have shared their experiences with us,” she says.

“Recent history is made real by talking to someone who lived through it.”

Back to Ina Cummings. She’s 78 now and no one could blame her if she fancied resigning from this unpaid role which has come to dominate her life.

“I did think about giving up a wee while back. But then I thought, that’s selfish. I’m lucky to be able to do it. So I carried on,” she says.

We can only be thankful that there are people like Ina and Margaret across Scotland. Where would we be without those community linchpins who give up their time to help others?

“I have thought about taking it easy,” says Margaret, 82.

“But then I hear the people at the visually impaired group laughing away, or they tell me they’ve had a great day, and it makes me carry on.”

Stephen Costric, one of Ina’s drivers, sums it up.

“What would happen If there were no Margarets, Inas and Renas giving up their time? David Cameron used to talk about the Big Society – it’s been in East Kilbride for 40 years.”

The two Georges would be proud.

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