Award-winning hairdresser does not feel ‘worthy’ of royal honour

Jill Lauder, 53, from Grangemouth, said the medal came as a complete surprise.

Jill Lauder, 53, has been given a British Empire Medal (Jill Lauder/PA)

An award-winning hairdresser who started free pamper sessions for women with cancer said she does not feel “worthy” after being awarded a British Empire Medal in the King’s Birthday Honours.

Jill Lauder, 53, from Grangemouth, said the medal came as a complete surprise and she has no idea who nominated her.

She opened her salon Lady J’s in the town in 2011 and started hosting the free pamper sessions three years later after she helped friends who had cancer with their wigs.

She told the PA news agency: “I still would like to know who put me forward for it.

How I feel when I help someone... my heart feels 20 foot tall. To me, you can't buy that

Jill Lauder

“I don’t feel worthy. It’s just something I do. I don’t get all that starry-eyed way or think, ‘How amazing is that?’

“I live my life to the rule: if you can do it, do it. I never look for anything back. I never want anything back.

“How I feel when I help someone… my heart feels 20 foot tall. To me, you can’t buy that.

“Nothing in the world can give me that feeling and I always think, ‘I was born to do this because of how good it makes me feel’.”

Mrs Lauder, who won the Scotswoman of the Year award in 2019 and was named MacMillan volunteer of the year in 2012, said “teamwork” is to thank for her salon’s achievements.

She said: “It’s not just me. I’m a normal woman. I’ve been a single parent all my days. I’ve worked in cleaning jobs, I’ve worked my fingers to the bone.

“I went about in a bike that couldn’t turn corners that took all the soles off my shoes to get from one cleaning job to another cleaning job.

“I never forget where I came from.

“For me, it’s a great honour. If you’d said to me 20 years ago, ‘Jill, you’re going to end up with this’, I’d have said, ‘Well, what for?’

“Maybe one day I will be able to tell the grandkids about it.”