Loyal Elgin charity shop worker recognised for 25 years service to Cancer Research UK
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A DEDICATED charity shop worker has been recognised for 25 years service at an Elgin Cancer Research UK shop.
Val Wilson, shop manager at the store beside Wetherspoons, started her role on December 1, 1998, just 11 months after the shop first opened.
She has remained in the job ever since and, in February, travelled to London's Leanardo Royal Hotel to be presented with a long-service award.
"I'm passionate about my job so it was nice to get that recognition," Val said. "It was a nice surprise.
"I'm in a job now where I could retire and people ask me 'why are you not retired?'
"It's because I really enjoy it and I love my job. It can be really hard going and it's the team that I've got. Everybody comes in and does their bit and they do it well.
"And with the loyalty of the customers, we are so lucky. There are still a few customers from the early days.
"We get good comments about the shop. People say it is welcoming because of the volunteers we have."
From its opening in January 1998 until the end of 2023, the shop raised £3,150,000 – a figure that Val has played no small part in helping reach.
Far from just a figure – that money represents hundreds and thousands of cancer patients and their families helped in their darkest hours.
That's a fact that has hit home for Val in the last few years with cancer diagnoses in the family.
She said: "Everybody is affected by cancer, and that's what makes this job so rewarding.
"We have targets and budgets, but you sometimes realise that you are actually saving lives and that makes your job worthwhile."
Cancer Research UK runs two charity shops in Elgin. The one that Val is manager of has four paid members of staff and a 28-strong team of volunteers.
John MacKintosh – who received a BEM in the King's New Year Honours List – is one of her most dedicated volunteers, having helped out since 1999.
Val thanked her job share manager Sarah McCran, who has worked with her for the last 16 years, for all her help and support throughout the years.
