The First Minister meets Malik!*

On Friday 20th February we had arranged to meet with the First Minister – Nicola Sturgeon.  We invited her to come and see The Well, as our experience is that when people actually come to The Well they have a greater understanding of the work we do, and the impact it has.

We had been told that she would be free for half hour – which I must admit seemed very generous out of a busy schedule. (She had been on Question Time the night before and didn’t arrive home until 3.30 am!)

We invited some of our service users,  one of our volunteers and one of our external partners to come and chat to her.  We sat in the reception area and just talked. Our service users did us proud and told her the difference The Well makes to them and how important it is to them. Sunny from Positive Action in Housing told of how important his surgery at The Well was to his work, and Dougie said that being in The Well was amongst the most valuable work that he did.

We really did have a lovely afternoon and she promised to help out whatever way she could – especially when we told her of some of the cases we deal with.

1/2 hour? She actually stayed with us almost an hour and was more than happy to have her photo taken both with individuals and the group. I think she was also very happy to receive a gift of a Well bag to take away with her:)

Thank you Ms Sturgeon for coming, I know several of our service users were as proud as punch to have met you, and now have their photo with you in pride of place in their living rooms. (One has even taken him with him as he gone to visit family in India!)

* name changed