BARONESS JILL PITKEATHLEY winner of the outstanding achievement award, on a life involved with charities
Treat every day as an opportunity. I was extremely ill a few years ago — I was given a less than 1 per cent chance of survival — so to me every day is a benefit.
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Be flexible. It’s fine to make plans but life has a way of coming at you when you don’t expect it. Sometimes that means that an opportunity will arise to support your campaign in a way that you haven’t prepared for. If that happens to you, don’t miss it just because it doesn’t fit into your five-year plan.
Don’t expect defeat. When the Private Member’s Bill that eventually turned into the world’s first carer’s act was introduced we didn’t have the time or the resources to campaign and we didn’t think that the government of the day would accept it, but we went hell for leather anyway and the rest is history.
Keep meetings under control. Let people have a chance to speak, but be firm, stay in charge and stick to the agenda. I detest meetings that go on and on.
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Stay close to your users and members. They are the people who will make sure that they tell you what it is like for them. Make sure that their voice is heard at board level — it will help you to focus your purpose on the end user.
Relationships change. You have to be prepared constantly to negotiate your relationships, no matter how well established they are. Things that you think are done and dusted change; policies change; ministers change. You have to change and adapt too.
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Don’t give up. People say that when you are very near death you have dreams about drifting off peacefully into the sunset. I had lots of vivid dreams but they were all about survival.