Birmingham, 11 September 2021
It is with great pleasure that the Trustees of NWR (National Women’s Register) announce Fiona Catterson of Kilbarchan Group as the winner of the 2021 Mary Stott Award.
Fiona Catterson is pictured above left, with NWR trustee Jennifer Johnson
The Mary Stott Award is presented annually to an NWR member who has made an exceptional contribution to NWR, her community or a wider initiative. Candidates for the award exemplify exceptional personal development and unswerving commitment to their cause, and are nominated by NWR members.
Fiona joined NWR in 2015 and is local organiser of the Kilbarchan Group, which welcomes members from in and around the Johnstone area of Scotland.
Jennifer Johnson, NWR trustee and lead judge for the Mary Stott Award, presented Fiona with NWR’s commemorative quaich – a Scottish cup of friendship – at the charity organisation’s national conference. She commented:
“This was the year of the pandemic and all NWR members had to face a new way of working and maintaining our important NWR links, and Fiona made exceptional efforts to support her NWR group in dealing with the unfamiliar ways of working. She not only helped her own group to maintain links with each other, but also encouraged them to engage across the full range of NWR’s digital offerings making them feel very much part of the wider NWR community.”
Fiona’s work securing a sizable lottery sum for the Friends of Stanley Park Care Home in Paisley was also recognised by the judges, as were her environmental activities and research into climate change and conservation.
Fiona’s Kilbarchan Group colleagues commented in nominating her:
“Fiona is deeply committed and very active in her church. She is passionate about climate change, single use plastics and conservation, and with her push the church has become an Eco Church community, moving from strength to strength, and expecting to achieve silver and then gold status.
“In these strange times, Fiona through all her hard work with our NWR community and other organisations, has shown a tremendous commitment to the mental welfare of many people. Without her at the helm, many of our members would have had little contact with others. She is quick to notice who needs a helping hand. Now that things are easing a bit, she is calm and collected as some of us feel gung ho, while others are a bit concerned about mixing again.”
About the Mary Stott Award
Mary Stott was the first and longest serving editor of ‘The Guardian’ newspaper’s Women’s page, and it was under her aegis that ‘The Guardian’ provided a launch pad for the National Housewives Register (NHR), a forerunner organisation of NWR.
Mary Stott was a great supporter and friend to NWR; over 40 years she acted as an informal advisor, served as a trustee and was appointed an Honorary Life Member. Following Mary’s death in 2002, the NWR Mary Stott Award was founded as a lasting tribute to her contribution to NWR.