A Thornliebank woman who goes the extra mile to support her local community has been honoured with the 2020 East Renfrewshire Council Provost’s Award.

Alison McGown, was crowned Citizen of the Year for her wide range of volunteering work within her local community.

As the driving force and founding member of Thornliebank Together, Alison played a key role in supporting the local community during the Council’s Participatory Budgeting project in 2019.

Alison said: “It came as such a shock to me that I had been awarded with this year’s Provost’s Award – I never even knew I had been nominated! I’d like to thank everyone in Thornliebank who has supported me over the years.

"It really is a joint effort, I wouldn’t be where I am today without the support of the Thornliebank Together team.

"I look forward to continuing to work with the group over the coming years and help play our part to make Thornliebank a fairer and stronger community.”

As secretary of Linking Communities, Alison also ran a Scottish Government trial initiative to tackle food inequalities with 60 households and over 190 people benefitting monthly from the project.

Alison, who has lived in the area all her life, also worked to secure funding from Barrhead Housing Association for a knitting project for people with dementia, as well as finding tablets and laptops for vulnerable people in her community through the Scottish Government’s Connecting Scotland scheme.