Volunteers Week 2022 – My journey to becoming a trustee….Carolyn Johnstone

To help celebrate Volunteers Week 2022 we asked Carolyn Johnstone who is a member of the board of trustees about her journey to becoming a member and her experience so far…

My first experience with the Carer Centre was through work, or so I thought until sitting down to write this.

I am a lecturer who teaches nurses. At work, I share my experiences and often found myself talking about my life as a nurse and as a parent whose son was born 15 weeks early. He grew up to be an amazing young man who lives with significant disabilities. I guess as a parent I knew my experiences were very different from my friends and that only those who lived in my world could understand.

At some point I found myself developing teaching for new students and wanted to put carers front and centre; this is where the carer centre came in. My son was around 10; I worked with amazing staff to develop teaching but spent time listening and learning myself. Eventually, I acknowledged that I was a carer and asked for help. Over time I started to think about giving back but working full time with a full home life, time was limited. Then I attended an AGM and heard about trustees. This was something I could do….so here I am.

To be honest I think I get more out of the experience of being a trustee as I get to support a really important organisation and meet some amazing people….carers, staff, and fellow trustees. There are the official oversight things to do which may seem like a lot, but each trustee brings different strengths, and we work together as a team. In all, it has been a really rewarding experience and one that I have learned so much from, particularly to see the importance of speaking out about the importance of carers, supporting carers and the positive impact organisations like Dundee Carers Centre have.

If you would like to find out more about being a Trustee go to our Become a Trustee Page