Marjorie Aitken has said she is “delighted” to have been awarded a BEM for services to older people in Northern Ireland in this year’s Birthday Honours.

Speaking to The Impartial Reporter, Marjorie (81) said: “It was a wonderful surprise, we are all so delighted by it.”

Many years

Marjorie has been involved with Irvinestown based Trendsetters, formally Age Concern, for many years and is currently a member of the committee having previously served as a Chair.

“We meet weekly, its for people who are 60+ because we do all sorts of exercises, we do lobbying for items and things that are pertinent to older people, and encourage people to be proactive in their health.

“We previously had run a lunch club up until Covid also, we have been back meeting face to face since September last year.”

She said: “There are 45-50 on our books and we have 32 to 35 attending every week, we are all very well supported. I am pleased that a lot of people have come back post Covid, it was very sad as we did lose a few of our people during that two year period.”

Majorie also serves as chair of South West Age Partnership (SWAP), and is on the Age NI Consultative Forum who meet in Belfast.

26 years in Fermanagh

Marjorie laughed as she recalled how she moved back to Fermanagh for “six months back in 1997 but its now been 26 years”.

“When I came back in 1997, my mother was already attending the club so took me up with her [to see what happens]. But in a funny story, I brought my daughter up in May as a nod to the beginnings of my journey with the club and hopefully when she comes back to Northern Ireland she will also go to the club.”

Marjorie was born in Enniskillen, the daughter of a solider.

She said: “I hardly ever lived in Northern Ireland because as an Army child we were always living in different places, three years here and there.” Marjorie was educated in Scotland at boarding school and later university before heading off to settle in South Africa where she raised her family of two daughters and a son with her late husband Samuel Johnston.

Majorie is a proud grandmother to four grandchildren and a great-grandchild. Looking to the future, she now plans to write a memoir on her life growing up as an Army child.