Tributes paid to Edinburgh mother Nancy Blaik, driving force behind Scotland's first children's hospice
Tributes have been paid to Nancy Blaik, a prolific charity volunteer from Edinburgh and a driving force behind the creation of Scotland’s first children’s hospice, who has died, aged 88.
Nancy died on May 10, 2025 from pneumonia after living her final years with the progressive neurodegenerative disorder, Lewy Body Dementia.
Born in Wallyford to parents Agnes and Angus Geekie, Nancy had two siblings, Christina and James, both of whom predeceased her.
Growing up near Canonmills, where she went to school, Nancy entered her first job at the tender age of 15 working as an office assistant at the National Farmers Union. She later becoming a highly skilled audio typist in the Medical Microbiology Department of Edinburgh University.
Despite a difficult start in life due to deprivation and wartime family stress Nancy, who was blind from childhood, achieved so much in working for others. In 1977 Nancy welcomed her beloved son Daniel into the world. At the age of just two Daniel was diagnosed with, and profoundly disabled by, the metabolic disease Leighs Encephalopathy, a severe, progressive neurological disorder which meant he could only move his eyes and mouth. As a result, Nancy took on the role of Daniel’s full-time carer throughout his childhood, as well as being his devoted mother.
Shortly after Daniel’s diagnosis Nancy became involved with, and actively raised funds for, a small charity called Children Living with Inherited Metabolic Diseases (CLIMB). It was through CLIMB she became aware of Martin House children’s hospice in Yorkshire, where she started visiting with Daniel and her husband Jack.
In 1988, Nancy and Jack, and some other parents who all regularly travelled the hundreds of miles from Scotland to Martin House for precious care and respite for their seriously ill children, got together to discuss opening such a facility closer to home. So passionate were Nancy and her group to achieve this that in September 1991 they held their first public meeting in Edinburgh University and less than six months later a group was formally incorporated, becoming the registered charity that is known today as Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS).
Nancy never let herself be held back by her vision loss and her dedication and commitment to the charitable causes close to her heart led to her being named Disabled Scot of the Year in 1991. In the years that followed Nancy played a key role in raising the £10 million needed to build the first CHAS children’s hospice.
Thanks to a major appeal from the Daily Record which attracted many generous donations from the Scottish public and other sources, Nancy’s dream, and that of many others, for a children’s hospice in Scotland was eventually realised in 1996 when Rachel House opened its doors in Kinross.
Daniel enjoyed 13 wonderful years visiting Rachel House with Nancy and Jack before he died in 2009, aged 31, long outliving the prognosis of a few years given when he was aged two. Before and since his death, Nancy remained active in raising funds for CHAS and received an MBE for her work as a founding director of CHAS in 1997.
Over the last three decades Nancy’s legacy has helped CHAS to ensure that no family faces the death of their child alone and has provided unwavering care and support to thousands of families in its two hospices, Rachel House in Kinross and Robin House in Balloch (which opened in 2005), in hospitals or at home – giving children and families the gift of choice in their palliative care journeys.
Alongside her work at CHAS, Nancy inspired the creation of Leith Home Start, a support service in Edinburgh, and was also an active and dedicated fundraiser for RNIB and Guide Dogs for the Blind.
In her later years Nancy became profoundly disabled herself and was cared for by her devoted husband Jack and a small team of personal assistants, who made her life as active and as independent as it could be, in her own home and community of 50 years.
CHAS CEO Rami Okasha paid tribute to Nancy saying: “Nancy was a true inspiration for many staff and families at CHAS. She had a clear ambition for what CHAS should offer young people, children and their families. She showed true commitment and spoke with real passion, holding true to her values over many years.
“Nancy along with the other founders had the vision of what palliative care for babies and children could look like, along with strong determination, resilience and courage to turn their vision into a reality.
Nancy’s legacy will forever live on in all the valuable work of CHAS in supporting children with life-shortening conditions and their families right across Scotland.