Karen Wallace

Said the following about Nicola Dawson:

“Nic – full time working mum of two. Audit, Risk and Compliance Manager, ScotRail Chair of Inspire, Incident Care Team – member/ team leader / deployment manager, Triathlon coach, Jog Scotland Leader, Children’s Panel member.

Inspire

Nic is ScotRail Chair of Inspire – the employee network promoting gender equality. Nic start this role just prior to lockdown and has been instrumental in driving events and keeping the network functions throughout lockdown. She believes being a women should not stop you doing anything you want to and is proactive in sharing this message. For International Women’s Day 2020 she co-ordinated the running of Scotland’s first all-female staffed train and thereafter hosted an event, with over 70 attendees and speakers.

Lockdown did not stop her, surveying members to find out what their concerns were and thereafter running a campaign ‘You Said, We Did’, sharing posts on inspiring women within the business, moving events online, proactively utilising both internal and external social media and established links with Women In Rail Scotland. Events include:

• International Women’s Day 2021 – Various speakers including May Dunsmuir (President of the Health and Education of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland) who spoke on the challenges she overcame in reaching high judicial office and provide us with her top ten tips for leadership.

• Anxiety UK – Nic contacted Anxiety UK and arranged for a workshop on anxiety and returning to the office

• International Women in Engineering 2022 – Nic arranged the first depot visit post covid to show women interested in Engineering what happens within a depot

• International Men’s Day – Utilising her contact’s Nic arranged the two events: 5 Things You Must Do To Lose Weight" by Stuart McDade, Personal Trainer and “What is a healthy diet and how to incorporate this into our working lives” by Nathalie Jones dietician

• Nic delivered an Imposter Syndrome ‘tea and chat’ session

Incident Care Team (ICT)

As a former police officer, when Nic joined ScotRail she immediately joined the ICT. Since then she has trained as team leader and deployment leader – these are all voluntary roles. Nic was deployed to the train derailment at Carmont in Aug 2020 during which 2 members of staff and a passenger died. As soon as the phone call was received deploying the ICT, she packed her bag and made her way to Stonehaven (3hrs away from her home), arriving 6 hours after the incident. Over the next days and weeks her role was to talk to colleagues at various who directly knew the deceased and provide advice and support including access to counselling. She also looked out for other ICT members to ensure their wellbeing.

Nic’s Noon Runners

Upon joining ScotRail Nic identified that staff often went out running themselves at lunchtime but there was no formal group. As a qualified Jog Scotland Leader she established a work place Jog Scotland Group called Nic’s Noon Runners. The group met every Monday at noon and headed out on various adventures around the city to take in some km’s whilst networking and escaping the office. It provided a great way for staff, who worked in different teams, to meet each other and create friendships. All levels were welcome with routes adapted to meet the ability of those attending. Covid stopped the group but it that didn’t stop Nic who came up with a momentous challenge…

Nic’s Noon Runners v Scotland’s Railway - to run/cycle the length of the Scotland route rail network. This is approx. 2819 km but to make things harder we will be doing this twice (5638km)! With only 8 people in the team they knew it would be a struggle but the team smashed it in 11 weeks and completed the challenge 2 weeks early. The Teams fundraised throughout and in total raised £1860.25 inc gift aid to be split between MND and NHS Charities Together. The team’s efforts featured in both internal and external communications. The team themselves viewed that as keeping them sane during the initial part of lockdown and a focus when no-one knew what was coming. Upon completion Nic personally made each team a handmade facemask, personalised mug and certificate.

Nic created a Yammer page for the group and she has kept this filled with lots of useful and inspiring running and health information. For International Men’s day, under her other role as Chair of Inspire (employee gender equality network) she arranged the following two events: 5 Things You Must Do To Lose Weight" by Stuart McDade, Personal Trainer and “What is a healthy diet and how to incorporate this into our working lives” by Nathalie Jones dietician

The group then started back virtually in January 2022 when the couch to 5km was launched. It will be relaunching face to face late August 2022 as staff return to the office.

Couch to 5 km….

Starting on 24th January, 17 people started the couch to 5 km journey. It was an inclusive block for all wanting to get back into running or hadn’t run much before and not sure where to start. It was delivered virtually by Nic Dawson, a qualified Jog Scotland leader, triathlon coach, and level 3 personal trainer. The block was to last 7 weeks but extra weeks were added to consolidate and meet for an ‘in person’ park run at Drumpellier. There were 3 runs each week which slowly increased in intensity as the weeks progressed - the runs done whenever and wherever. The block consisted of a weekly training plan, support and WhatsApp group. This was key and used for camaraderie, encouragement, accountability and sharing of pictures of routes, scenery, playlists and smiling rosy cheeked runners.

Not everyone has made it to the end yet, injuries, life and covid got in the way but, the plan is structured in such a way it’s easy to repeat a week or pick up where you left and get back on it. Here’s what some of the runners said….

“Another 5km run this morning with 5 min warm up and 5 min cool down. I’m delighted. I enjoy it, especially when you get up in the morning, peace and quiet. Great feeling”

“it’s not about the 5km that can be a bit scary, it’s a brilliant journey with folk from all sorts of backgrounds driving each other on to be a bit fitter. I wouldn’t have gone so far in the journey without all these folks, most of whom I’ve met in this group, I haven’t got to the end of the journey yet, it’s just the beginning and a massive thanks to Nic who put so much time and effort into it.”

“Having started (and failing) several couch to 5k challenges due to injury, I was dubious that this one would be any different. I am delighted to say however that after some great advice from Nic at the start about getting some a proper sports massage and targeted exercises, this challenge had a successful outcome! The group set up by Nic have been a great support throughout with lots of words of encouragement and banter. The training programme was well structured and easy to follow. I’m pleased to say that having completed the challenge I now run twice a week as part of my exercise routine. A big thanks to Nic for setting up the group! “

Coaching and EpicTrails

Out with work Nic loves sport and is a keen ultra-marathon runner and triathlete. Unfortunately, three years ago she had a bad accident resulting in her breaking both wrists. That hasn’t stopped her. Despite multiple surgeries she has requalified as a triathlon coach, hosting zoom triathlon sessions for both juniors and adults throughout lockdown for Glasgow Triathlon club as well as couch to 5km and up it to 10km programmes. She is usually found on the trails and during lockdown she set up EpicTrails (facebook.com) and now has over 2000 followers. The initial purpose was to share local routes and encourage others to get out and explore the trails. Once restrictions were lifted she launched the EpicTrails Jog Scotland group where she takes guided trail runs every week. These have proved very popular and often sell out. The purpose is to get people out on the trails running, these may be people who haven’t runs on trails before, aren’t sure of the area or don’t like running alone. Feedback is always positive “great run”, “you kept me going during lockdown, and I couldn’t wait for my Thursday run escape”, what a lovely group, so inclusive”. Nic does charge for the sessions but it is not for profit, all money raised goes to charity with over £1000 donated in the last 10 months.

Early in 2022 there were a few indecencies on the local trails that scared quite a few women. Nic took the opportunity to contact the Scottish Centre for Personal Safety and set up an event for women to be given personal safety advice and techniques. This sold out with over 50 women signing up. All very grateful for the event due to local fears and providing them with confidence that they can go out “the workshop was brilliant and has given me the confidence to get back out on the local trains after recent safety concerns”. “What a brilliant afternoon - thanks to the team at The Scottish Centre for Personal Safety for delivering a really useful, practical (and fun!) session. I feel much more confident now, despite recent events. Thanks to you too, Nicola Dawson , for taking such a positive approach and brining it all together. Fantastic all round”

Back in 2018, she ran her first ever ultra-marathon raising over £1700 for Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity. She said she’d never run another ultra but never say never….after many more ultras, In June 2022, Nic set herself the biggest challenge and took part in the West Highland Way race. It is an ultra-marathon running the full 96mile West Highland Way. She completed it in 27hours and raised nearly £1500 for Scottish Mountain Rescue.

In total she’s raised over £6000 whilst keeping people fit and healthy!

Children’s Panel – Nic is a member of the Scottish Children’s Panel and dedicates at least 1 day a month to sit on panels as well as the Training Committee. Panel members are volunteers who make legal decisions with, and for, infants, children and young people in children’s hearings. The young person is at the heart of every decision being made as every decision has an impact. Legal decisions include making compulsory measures regarding where a child resides, who the child has contact with and others measures as deemed appropriate for the child to ensure they are protected and their wellbeing looked after.“