NHS Golden Jubilee volunteer wins national award for almost 20 years of outstanding service
Long-serving NHS Golden Jubilee Volunteer Sandra Pairman has won the Volunteers Award at Scotland’s Health Awards 2026, recognising almost 2 decades of exceptional dedication to improving the experience of patients.
Sandra, NHS Golden Jubilee’s longest-serving volunteer, received the award at the national ceremony in Edinburgh on Thursday 12 November.
The Volunteers Award celebrates individuals and teams who give their time to support the health and wellbeing of NHS Scotland patients, carers and service users.
Sandra, from Scone in Perthshire, has been part of the NHS Golden Jubilee family for many years. After retiring following a long career at the hospital, she joined the organisation’s Volunteering Service in 2007.
Since then, she has played an important role in improving patient experience and ensuring the patient voice is heard in the design and delivery of services.
Sandra has supported quality walkrounds, helped develop the hospital’s Mealtime Monitoring Service and contributed to audits and patient surveys across a wide range of services.
She also played an important role in the development of the NHS Golden Jubilee Eye Centre and Surgical Centre, bringing a patient perspective to business cases, building designs and patient pathways.
Sandra continues to share her experience by mentoring other volunteers and, as a lay member of the Research and Development Team, helps ensure the patient perspective is represented in research proposals.
Sandra said: “I am genuinely overwhelmed and incredibly touched to have received this award. I’ve never volunteered for recognition. I do it because NHS Golden Jubilee has been such an important part of my life and because I want to help make things better for patients wherever I can.
“Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of working alongside so many wonderful staff and volunteers. I’ve seen first-hand just how much people care about the experience patients have here, and I was delighted to receive the award, not only for myself but in recognition of the volunteer service at NHS Golden Jubilee.
“To receive this award alongside so many volunteers doing fantastic work across Scotland is a huge honour. I’m very grateful to everyone who nominated and supported me, and to all the staff and volunteers I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the years.”
NHS Golden Jubilee Chief Executive Carolynne O’Connor congratulated Sandra on her achievement.
She said: “We are incredibly proud of Sandra and absolutely delighted to see her extraordinary commitment to NHS Golden Jubilee recognised with this national award.
“For almost 2 decades, Sandra has generously given her time, experience and energy to making our organisation better for patients. Whether contributing to the development of major new services, supporting quality improvement or ensuring the patient voice is represented in research, she has made an enormous contribution.
“Sandra embodies the very best of volunteering. Her dedication, warmth and commitment to our patients and staff have made a lasting difference to NHS Golden Jubilee, and this award could not be more deserved.
“On behalf of everyone at NHS Golden Jubilee, I’d like to congratulate Sandra on this fantastic achievement.”
Double recognition for NHS Golden Jubilee
It was also a proud night for NHS Golden Jubilee, with Director of Pharmacy, Jill Swan, reaching the national final of the Pharmacist Award.
The Pharmacist Award recognises pharmacists delivering excellent NHS care and support whose expertise, compassion and personalised approach make a meaningful difference to patients and communities.
Jill, who joined NHS Golden Jubilee as Director of Pharmacy in January 2026, was recognised for her clinical leadership and pioneering work to introduce personalised antiplatelet prescribing for stroke and transient ischaemic attack (TIA) patients across Scotland.
As Clinical Lead for the CYP2C19 Genotype Programme, Jill helped lead the national introduction of genetic testing that can identify patients for whom the commonly prescribed antiplatelet medicine clopidogrel may be less effective following an ischaemic stroke or TIA.
Around a third of the UK population carry genetic variants that may reduce the effectiveness of clopidogrel. Identifying these patients allows clinical teams to select an alternative treatment better suited to their genetic profile, helping reduce their risk of experiencing a further stroke or TIA.
By July 2026, CYP2C19 genotype testing had been introduced across 10 of Scotland’s 14 territorial health boards, with more than 3,000 patients tested and 952 identified as having a reduced ability to metabolise clopidogrel.
Jill said: “It is a real honour to have been named as a finalist and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who put me forward.
“This recognition reflects the work of a huge number of colleagues across Scotland and the Accelerated National Innovation Adoption pathway team who have worked together to make personalised prescribing a reality for patients following a stroke or TIA.
“For me, the most important thing is the difference this approach can make for patients by helping ensure they receive the treatment most likely to work for them. I feel very fortunate to have been part of such a dedicated team and I’m delighted to see our collective work recognised in this way.”
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