New to the team

– by Morag McGown, Corporate Partnerships Manager

It’s hard to believe that I have now been in post for 5 weeks!

In some ways, I feel as though I have been with MND Scotland for ages, and on the other hand, the time has flown by. The Corporate Partnerships Manager post is a brand new role with MND Scotland and I am responsible for managing the ScotRail Alliance partnership and working on securing future partnerships for the charity.

It has certainly been a busy few weeks and I would like to thank everyone for all their support. This includes the fabulous team I am working with, ScotRail Alliance employees I have met and amazing supporters.

So what has been happening with the ScotRail Alliance? Since the launch of the partnership in March, there are now 359 cans across all the stations in Scotland, along with posters on trains. This is a great opportunity to help raise awareness as there are 258,000 passenger journeys every single day and 59,000 trains run every 4 weeks.

I have ensured that there is regular communication with staff via the ScotRail Alliance internal communications team and there has been a lot of positive feedback from our updates via their weekly publication, the Weekly Whistle, as well as on social media.

I have been out and about as much as possible to meet their staff and I have visited stations as far north as Inverness, the various depots all over the country, the Glasgow offices and even a visit to the CCTV Unit in Glasgow. Lots more visits planned!

I have been overwhelmed by the support so far and excited about the opportunities that this 3 year partnership will bring, both in terms of awareness of MND and also raising vital funds and can already sense a real team spirit within the organisation.

The month of August is looking busy with more travels and staff meetings scheduled in the diary. There are 30 ScotRail Alliance employees taking part in a Zipslide across the Clyde at the end of August and they will be the first group to wear the specially branded T-shirts!

I have been very touched by the staff who have had friends and family who have been affected by MND. There has been some fabulous fundraising taking place over the past few months with lots more going on in the months ahead. A big shout out for Alexander Dey, a Ticket Examiner at Dalmuir who organised a Skydive with fellow employees raising a magnificent £6,000.

A special mention too for Shaun McLardy, ticket examiner at Ayr who organised a sponsored walk along Fife’s coastal path with his friends and raised a fantastic £2569. I am also extremely grateful to supporters who organised bucket collections at various stations during MND Awareness Week.

If your workplace has a nominated Charity of the Year and you wish to make a difference by funding vital research into finding a cure, please do get in touch. I would love to hear from you.

There will be lots more to share over the months ahead with the ScotRail Alliance partnership and look forward to sharing the development of this, so watch this space for more details……

You can reach me any time at morag.mcgown@mndscotland.org.uk or you can give me a call on 0141 332 3903 (ext.225).