TWO inspiring women who have dedicated huge amounts of their time and skills to help communities in Helensburgh and Lomond have been recognised for their fundraising and volunteer efforts.

Susie Wills, who has been volunteering in and around Cove and Kilcreggan for more than 40 years, won a Regional Hero award at the annual Argyll and Bute Volunteer of the Year celebration event, held in Oban on Friday September 16.

Susie was recognised as a champion of her community, having served as a community councillor and also setting up the Youth Café in Cove in 2011, which provides fun activities for young people on the peninsula. She has been tireless in her fundraising efforts for the café ever since.

And Helensburgh’s Humbles café manager Kelly Andrews was highly commended in the NHS Health Volunteer of the Year category. Kelly has run marathons, conquered the Tough Mudder, hiked up Ben Lomond and more to raise £10,000 for the Roy Castle Lung Foundation following the death of her husband from the disease three years ago.

Susie told the Advertiser: “It's quite embarrassing being the winner, but I have to say it just may help the struggle to get projects done easier,for a year at least.

“The TSI do great work,and have supported me in my learning curve of working the system to make things happen.

“But as in the words of the song 'there is always enough for weapons and war, but never enough for the poor', and this is more apparent in our area than probably any other in Britain.

“Volunteers are necessary because the spending from our Government is skewed ,and some of us just can't bear to see the lack of facilities and care and not do something about it.”

Kelly, meanwhile, continued her lung cancer awareness mission with a 'memory walk' with family and friends to Ben Bouie on Sunday afternoon.

And though she was forced into a last-minute change of destination after bad weather scuppered her plans to climb Ben Lomond, it didn't stop her and her fellow walkers raising £360.

“I don't do any of what I do for the recognition,” she said. “I do it to raise awareness for people suffering from lung cancer and because it's important to remember Gary.

“But it was still nice to be honoured, and the awards ceremony was a lovely event.”

Susie and Kelly were among volunteers from across Argyll and Bute whose efforts were celebrated at the annual awards, hosted for the first time this year by Argyll & Bute TSI – which was created in 2015 when Argyll Voluntary Action, Islay and Jura CVS and Argyll and Bute Social Enterprise Network merged to form one organisation supporting the third sector across Argyll and Bute.

TSI chief executive Glenn Heritage said: “These two women show with their boundless energy and positivity that people can really make a difference in their community.

“It is important that people like them – who give up much of their own precious time to help others – are recognised for the huge contribution they make. They don’t do it for the recognition but our communities are so much richer for their efforts. We hugely value them.”

Among the guests at the award ceremony were Argyll and Bute MSP Russell, Argyll and Bute Council chief executive Cleland Sneddon, and Christina West, chief officer of the Argyll and Bute health and social care partnership.

The keynote speaker was Bill Clifford from Mary’s Meals, the hugely successful Argyll-based charity that provides meals for some of the world’s poorest children so they can go to school.