A West Lothian woman who helps people deal with grief has been honoured at the Palace of Westminster.
Dawn Murray was awarded the prestigious British Citizen Award.
The awards recognise exceptional endeavours which have positively impacted communities up and down the country.
Dawn Murray received a BCA for Services to Healthcare (BCAh) after setting up Living with Pet Bereavement 20 years ago, to improve the mental health of those facing the loss of a pet and experiencing ‘disenfranchised grief’ – grief that not everyone experiences, nor understands, but leaves sufferers feeling isolated.
Working purely voluntarily, Dawn has been providing pet bereavement counselling for the past two decades.
Through her work as a Pet Undertaker, the knowledge and experience gained makes Dawn one of the leading pet bereavement counsellors in the UK.
She said the aim of Living with Pet Bereavement was to create a safe environment, where bereaved pet owners could get the counselling and support they needed, pre-, during or post-loss of their pet, and to provide ongoing resources via the website.
In 2020, Dawn set up a private group on Facebook which has attracted over 1400 individuals worldwide.
Dawn campaigns to raise awareness of pet bereavement and has spoken on many national and local radio programmes to highlight what people actually go through when suffering ‘disenfranchised grief’ and the effect on their mental wellbeing.
This campaigning has helped bring pet bereavement into the mainstream and is by far Dawn’s biggest impact on the community of bereaved pet owners and carers.
Dawn was presented with the Medal of Honour by Tom Brown, from BCA Founding Sponsors Places for People who said: “A community is only as strong as its most vulnerable members, and as the UK’s leading Social Enterprise, creating thriving communities that deliver social value is at the heart of our approach.”
This year’s British Citizen Award recipients echo our belief that people make communities great places to live and epitomize the diverse ways that social value can improve people’s lives.
Every Medalist should be immensely proud of their contribution to creating a sustainable and resilient place to live.”
For more information visit www.britishcitizenawards.co.uk
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