Queen's Birthday Honour for former CEO Maria McGill

Former Chief Executive, Maria McGill has been named on the Queen's Birthday Honours list.

Maria who led the charity through significant change between 2010 and 2020, is being awarded a CBE for services to palliative and end-of-life care, and children.

Maria has dedicated almost all of her career to the field of palliative and end of life care.

She retired earlier this year.

Before she moved into formal leadership roles, Maria was a caring and dedicated frontline nurse, working in the community, intensive care before moving into hospice care.

After being appointed as Chief Executive of CHAS in 2010, Scotland's only children's hospice charity, Maria led its transformation into a charity supporting dying children in hospices, children's homes, and hospitals. She dramatically increased the voluntary income and the number of children supported every year. An innovative leader, she commissioned the first country-wide dataset in the world showing the number of children with life-shortening conditions, and used this to plan new services.

Commenting on her CBE, Maria McGill said: "I am so proud and honoured. It was an incredible privilege to serve CHAS, leading a wonderful team of staff and volunteers who are so dedicated to caring for children and families across Scotland. Children's hospices are always about the art of the possible, working with families in the most difficult of times to create precious memories, the biggest of smiles, and moments of joy. I will always be deeply grateful for having had the opportunity to play a part in the story of CHAS."

George Reid, Chair of CHAS, said: "This award for Maria is truly well deserved and a remarkable recognition for her work with CHAS and children's hospices. Maria's personal warmth, compassion and humanity underpinned everything she did to grow CHAS and reach even more children and families in Scotland that needed the care and support we provide."