Decades of contribution to the health industry in Stawell from Meg Blake has been rewarded with a national honour.
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Mrs Blake was awarded with a Medal of the Order of Australia recognising years of service to the community.
The Bellellen hobby farmer founded fundraising group Younger Set, now known as the Stawell Y-Zetts back in 1975 and currently serves as the group’s president.
It was a personal connection to the Stawell Hospital which got Mrs Blake involved in fundraising for the health service.
“My Mum was a nurse at the Stawell Hospital and was asked by a matron if me and some friends would consider creating a group to raise funds for the hospital,” she said.
“We started with a cake stall and things took off from there.”
Mrs Blake said she can remember when she was a child how she admired those at the hospital, giving her an early appreciation for the work done there.
“We used to have egg days as kids where we would take a dozen eggs to school to donate to the hospital,” she said.
”Also as a 10 year old I was knocked off my bike by a car and spent three months in hospital. I was always proud of my Mum as a nurse but that just reinforced the respect I had for the people that worked there.”
Mrs Blake and her group played a key role in shaping a different way to raise funds, embracing the ever changing world.
“We ran a big cabaret which was a bit different because the Ladies Auxiliary never had alcohol at their events. We didn’t compromise them, we complimented them,” she said.
“It was a bit of a new age having a junior auxiliary and doing things differently.”
Mrs Blake continued her service to the health industry, joining the hospital’s board at just 30 years old.
After a hiatus, she returned to Stawell Regional Health as publicity coordinator and fundraiser manager in the 1990s.
“We practically rebuilt the hospital. We had the first helipad in the region, had chemotherapy first, so many of these things we were leading the health field in the region,” Mrs Blake said.
Read more: Y-Zetts donate once more to hospital
Despite retiring from her role at Stawell Regional Health in 2013, Mrs Blake remains committed to the health industry in the region.
She is a community representative for Deakin University’s Rural Community Clinical School and Medical Students Support Group while the Y-Zetts continue to fundraise for the hospital, with its annual shopping spree one of Stawell’s biggest events of the year.
Mrs Blake has previously been recognised with Australia Day honours, winning a Victorian Local Hero Award in 2011 and being named as an Australia Day ambassador.
Despite personal health battles with cancer and Crohn’s disease in her life, Mrs Blake said it is important to embrace the positives.
“You don’t dwell on the bad, you just make the most of the good,” she said.
She said she was “thrilled” to have been given the honour but did not do the work for accolades.
“I have basically worked my adult life as a volunteer for nothing other than a good feeling,” she said.
“I continue to convince people they need to volunteer one way or another – it keeps you young.
“It is something I will continue to do because I love it.”
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