CHAS' Douglas Cameron has been recognised for his work in improving communications at the charity

A volunteer from a Scottish hospice has scooped a national award.

Douglas Cameron, who gives up his time for Children’s Hospices Across Scotland – better known as CHAS – has been crowned Volunteer of the Year 2018 at the Hospice UK Awards.

Douglas, an IT and activities volunteer at Rachel House Children’s Hospice in Kinross, has been instrumental in transforming volunteer communications at CHAS through identifying and implementing the Workplace by Facebook platform - enabling the charity to reach, engage and retain more volunteers to support children and families across Scotland.

As one of the first charities in the world to adopt Workplace for volunteers, the communications tool has consequently united CHAS' network of more than 900 volunteers and created a collaborative community where people can easily find important information and resources. From those raising money in remote areas of the Scottish Highlands, to the care volunteers and therapists powering two hospices on opposite sides of the country.

Douglas was also recognised for developing a user-friendly chat bot, named CHASbot, which he programmed to answer frequently asked questions from volunteers. This has generated significant levels of interest from other charities across the UK keen to learn how they can develop the technology for themselves.

Since its rollout, CHAS has delivered two webinars to over 50 organisations across the country and has been invited by Facebook to contribute blogs and deliver presentations to showcase how CHAS’ volunteer communications have been transformed through Douglas’s innovative thinking.

Douglas said: “I am a very proud advocate of CHAS and it is very humbling to represent all the good that so many people do. Volunteering gives me a tremendous sense of worth, CHAS staff add to that by always making me feel valued, so winning the award is a very unexpected additional recognition.

“I've had a working knowledge of CHAS from back when I managed a Social Work team, and since then the CHAS collection box has been my go-to for donations. Over the last 10 years I've moved further away from frontline child services, migrating towards what I do now, managing IT for SCRA (the Scottish Children's Reporter Adminstration).

“As much as I enjoy technology, it can be very impersonal and I miss the human aspects of my earlier career. My teenage daughter was still at school and had ambitions of being a paediatrician, so as something to do together and knowing CHAS would either make or break those ambitions, we signed up together to volunteer two years ago. My initial experience of CHAS was and mainly still is Sunday mornings at Rachel House fixing the technology and getting involved in activities. It's actually the most fun and relaxing thing I do in a week, it's generally a joy.”

Morven MacLean, volunteering development manager for CHAS, said: “We are thrilled to see Douglas recognised for his efforts in this way. The unsung heroes are often those in the background, innovating and developing infrastructure to enable organisations like CHAS to grow and reach even more children in Scotland who need our services.

“Douglas represents the modern volunteer – someone who came to us with a unique skill set that we have put to good use, enabling him to make a real and meaningful impact on the organisation. His innovation and creativity have enabled us to scale up volunteering and future-proof the organisation.”