Top national award for Inverness volunteer cadet
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A volunteer has achieved one of the highest accolades for his work with young people in Inverness.
Neil Jack (47) from Balloan Gardens has volunteered with the Air Cadets for the past six years and was 'virtually' awarded with the Goose Bay Cane for his work.
The Goose Bay Cane is awarded to the top warrant officer or senior non commissioned officer for Scotland and the Northern Ireland region, named that after a cane that a warrant officer would carry while on parade.
As the commanding officer of the Inverness Air Cadets branch, Flight Sergeant Neil Jack, said his volunteering work was very fulfilling for him, and for the 28 cadets each year that he works with. Young people who attend the training are aged between 12 and 19, and have the opportunity to study for qualifications such as BTECs and SQAs.
Mr Jack, who is a full-time carer for his wife Lorraine who lives with lung disease, said: "I grew up in the Air Force and although I was born in Beverly I have lived my life in the Highlands since the age of 13 when as a family we moved onto the base at RAF Alness. You could say that I was born into it.
"As a young boy I was in the Air Cadets and I left in 1989. It was all that I knew.
"I didn't do very well at school and then when I left school I got a job at Historic Scotland and I wanted to concentrate on that work, at the same time I was a special constable in Inverness for nine years, so I gave up the cadets.
"I moved to a job in the hospital eventually becoming the stores supervisor, which took us up to Wick where I moved job to one at Pets at Home before that brought us back to Inverness."
Mr Jack has now been volunteering with the Air Cadets for six years and over that time has been nominated and received a number of commendations for his work, including a visit to Holyrood Palace to meet the Queen..
Mr Jack, who is dad to three children as well as having three grandchildren, explains that when he was told he won the award he was "shocked". He said: "When I was told that I had won the award it was a total surprise. I didn't even know that I had been nominated for the award. I was up against other adults from all over Scotland and Northern Ireland without even knowing it."
"When you think of the scale of the operation run by the Air Cadets, it makes me very pleased not only for me, but for all the cadets that the Goose Bay Cane was presented to Inverness."
He continued: "Things are very hard on young people at the moment and I wanted to make sure the message is out there is that no matter what your challenges are or your competition you can achieve great things for both youngsters and adults alike."
