Marion Scott – Chief Reporter, The Sunday Post (#31)

Episode 31 of the Money Made Human podcast features Marion Scott, Chief Reporter at The Sunday Post.

Marion is an award-winning investigative journalist whose work has helped uncover major stories across Scotland. Throughout her career, she has remained committed to exposing injustice and giving a voice to those who need to be heard.

In this episode, host Gayle Lloyd speaks with Marion about her career, what drives her as a journalist, and the role investigative reporting can play in creating positive change.

Key topics in this episode include:

• Marion's first front-page story at just 18 months old
• Her journey into journalism and what inspired her to become an investigative journalist
• Her determination to expose injustice and give victims a voice
• Some of the most memorable stories from her career
• The Sunday Post's front-page investigation into the dangers women face through domestic abuse
• Marion's hopes for journalism and what she still hopes to achieve

We hope you enjoy listening!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Money Made Human podcast. It celebrates at its heart the work of credit unions and their vital role in enriching our lives and communities. Brought to you by First Class Credit Union. Each episode features insightful discussions revealing the meaningful impact that can be made through economic collaboration. Mostly it's a collection of compassionate conversations about navigating life and the individual journeys we take.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Hi, how is everybody? How are you all? Thank you so much inviting me today.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Marian, we're so pleased to have you, and you're such an iconic person in terms of journalism in Scotland. We've just been speaking to the editor of the Sunday Post this morning, Thomas Hawkins, and he had such great things to say about you. So we're really have so many questions to ask you. Um, but we'll we'll come back to the Sunday Post if that's okay. Yes, that's okay. Because a little buddy told me you got your first front cover at a young age, is that right?

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Yes, I did. I think when when you're at school and things and when you're a young person, you never really know what you're going to do when you grow up. But when I was 18 months old, I got my first front page story, and it kind of shaped the rest of my life, really. Um, and the story behind that is that um my mum had lots of sisters, and sisters are you know they're very competitive, and they had lots of boys, and but my mum had the first the first daughter, so she wanted to do something different from the rest of them, and she it was in the days when they used to do bonnie baby and bonnie mum contests, so she decided she was going to start taking me around these these places, and I I grew up in a wee place called Arrow, and that was you know the sort of focus every summer, the outdoor pool, they would have these competitions, and um, so she took me along, and um bikinis were banned at the at the pool because this it was just one of those ages, you know. So, but my mum had gone and made me a little bikini, and despite the despite the fact that they were banned, I won everything. I won the top contest, uh Bonnie Baby and Bonnie Mum. Um, and she was absolutely silly, really delighted. Um, and we managed to escape the ban. So I got on the front page, but this this cheered her on, and she thought this is the way to go. She started taking me to every single one she could find, and uh, I got really fed up about being a bit of a tomboy. Um, at one of them, uh I bit her and bit her on the hand and I wouldn't let her go. And she always had to rattle her hand off before before I would let her go. So that was the end of my beauty career one and only. So you were you were a bonnie baby at the age of 18 months. I was a bonnie baby, and I've managed to keep the same body shape ever since. Um, that's been through a very strict diet of pies and chips. Yeah, I can look back in that picture and say, Look, see Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

I love that. Um so that was your first encounter with newspapers?

SPEAKER_02 3:37

That was my first encounter with newspapers, and I I just um you know it just seemed to me that it was something that fascinated me. And and growing up, um it's it's very unusual. I I I loved reading books and I would you know vicariously read and read and read. Um there was never a book out of my hand, and um, so there was not you know a lot of guessing into where I was going to go um when I was older. Um and the strange thing about it was that my my grandpa, uh my mum's my mum's mum, my mum's dad, sorry, um, he couldn't read or write at all. He was a farmer, and um, you know, back in those days it was very difficult. It wasn't like a big gentleman farmer. It was like he his mum had three sons and they all had to work on the farm. So my granddad had left school very early to do that, um, and he never really learned how to read and write properly. Um, that is another reason why I I became a journalist and an investigative journalist because um because my grandfather couldn't read and write, he um he was targeted by a load of scammers um who managed to talk him into selling his land off at um ridiculously low price, and really basically we we lost um you know what should have been our family um legacy. Legacy. Um and I swore um at that point that I would do everything I could to um investigate every single one of them that had been involved in that scam. Um, and throughout my career I did eventually and saw virtually all of them behind bars for one thing and another. Because one thing I did learn is that these guys, these scammers, they don't just do it to one person, they keep on going. So that was what really put fire in my belly um to become an investigative journalist.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

When did that happen, Marion? Were you a young girl at the time or going through university?

SPEAKER_02 5:36

I was a I was a young girl at the time. I was going through school, um, and uh obviously, you know, my family were very open about what happened um and we all talked about it. So it was something that really gripped me, and I thought it was just so unfair and such an injustice that um it was something that really drove me on to become uh you know an investigative journalist rather than any other kind.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Did that did that sit with you right in that moment? You know, did you think I want to do something about that when I'm older? And you you had a plan to become a journalist at that point? Is that what happened?

SPEAKER_02 6:13

Yes, really, yes. Um, because I I you know I like I loved writing um and I just thought that it was just such a a sense of injustice of what had happened to my grandfather because he was a he was a very hard, hard working man. And you know, he was out in the fields, you know, the back of photopot as soon as it was daylight. He worked all his days, he's worked since he was a young um young child, and you know, to have that all snatched away and taken away, um, you know, it was horrific. And I saw the effect that it had on him. It destroyed him as a man and as a person, and you know, the the person that he he was, um, and he never really recovered from that. And that's that's what happens to victims, and and that was one of the reasons why I you know I strove to become an investigative journalist. I I thought that it was something that I could do to help other people. Um, and if it was to use my skills to expose people that had done wrong, then I felt that it was something that I could do.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Do you do that in tribute to your grandfather now? Do you does that sit at the back of your mind?

SPEAKER_02 7:19

I always, always. Um, every victim that I've ever um met, you know, who's had something terrible done to them, it's really for all of them because I've never forgotten any single one of them. Despite all the years I've been doing this, you know, there's not one person that I've ever forgotten. Because when you are allowed into someone's life to that extent and they trust you, it's a very special bond that I don't think you get in any other um walk of life. Perhaps perhaps a doctor, maybe share a similar bond or you know, a best friend, but it's a very special bond that you have with that person. I'm sure you'll have found that over the years yourself.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Marine, for sure, and I think a part of of our podcast for our credit union community, every time we have a guest on, they leave and they become part of our family because because they share stories with us, like you've just shared about your grandfather. So they leave they leave a little bit of that behind in us.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Yeah, I think so. I think we all um we're never ever the sum of ourselves, we're we're all parts of other people and people that we've met during our lives, I think. And um, I think that's that's what it's all about. That's what makes life a big, big tapestry, I think.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Um I want to ask you as you were progressing through school and and choose, I don't know if you went to university or what what was your your practical path into journalism? How did you get started?

SPEAKER_02 8:56

Well, I um grew up in a little place called Arborath, um, and it's just past Dundee, and you'll know that on the coast. On the coast, and DC Thompson's was you know the big um newspaper um business there. Um but I had I was I had intended originally thinking about going down to London. I had other school friends that had gone down to London and they had worked in um you know similar kind of businesses in PR and things. However, um my mum wasn't too keen for me to go. I was still only about 16 um when I left school because I was very young when I started school, and um she uh took some of the writings that I'd I'd done, you know, that I'd written a lot of stuff. She took it down to the editor of the local paper, and um he came up and offered me a job. I was actually packing my suitcase and and uh he offered me a job and I thought about it because I'd been offered a place at university as well to study journalism, and um he he had been uh he had been a Sunday Mail journalist before he became the local newspaper editor, and he said to me, Well, you could go to university, but you're still gonna have to start at the beginning again. Um, you know, you you'd just as well to come onto the paper and learn because that's we all learn as we as we move through the job. So um I I decided, right, okay, I'm gonna give it a try. And that's how that's how it started. My training was I was given a pen and a notebook control to get out there and listen to what people were saying. And actually, it was the best training I could ever have had because um it did teach you how to um, you know, converse with people, how to get to know people, how to get them to trust you, to be able to share, you know, very, very intimate moments in their lives, um, things that had happened to them. Um, so that's how I started, really, basically, in a little place called Erbrose. Uh and uh I I was there for I would say a couple of years and I came down to to Glasgow, of course, the big smoke. Um that was always calling to me. And um I started in a local paper called the Wishaw Press. And while I was there, I immediately started working for um all the bigger papers. And within a very short time, I was freelancing and and working in the Daily Records, working in the Evening Times and uh the Sunday Mail. All all iconic Scottish newspapers? Absolutely, and the funny thing was that I was too young to get a staff job because you had in those days you had to be 19, and by that point I was still only 18 years old. Um, but uh I was determined that uh you know I was gonna I I was gonna make the mark. So I just sort of stuck in there and um I ended up working for all the the different newspapers throughout um over the years. But basically the Sunday Mail was my was my home for about 30 odd years and then the Sunday Post.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

And did you want to specifically get into investigatory journalism? Was that the passion in it?

SPEAKER_02 12:07

Yes, that was that was the real passion because I felt that you know you could write a million stories, but if you're not writing about something that's going to help to change someone's life or expose uh an injustice or or tell someone you know that that you know something that's happened is wrong, I didn't think that was much it didn't interest me otherwise, you know. It really is I thought that was really, you know, my focus, um, just because of what had happened to my grandfather, you know, and and other uh, you know, and other people, you know, you go around you go around and you meet people and you hear things that have happened to other people, and you know, you realise that there are a lot of bad things in this world, and you want to try and help. And if there's a way to try and help and expose it, um, and certainly back in those days, newspapers were really effective in exposing all kinds of scandals, you know, the blood contaminated blood scandal, that was one of the very first things I wrote about. Um, and you know, things like that. Without journalism, these stories and these horrific things would go uh under the carpet and they would stay there. Uh and the people that were victims would be just left flailing around on their own.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

What what are the stories of your lifetime that you you kind of carry around with you that are the most memorable that you feel you've helped with?

SPEAKER_02 13:33

Um I think when it I think the contaminated blood stuff, um I I was one of the very first journalists to write about abuse, child abuse, in the children's homes and um and the residential schools throughout Scotland. And I I started writing about that in the 70s, and that was long before people had even realised that had gone on. Um and initially I I had hate absolutely sackfuls of hate mail. I always remember my boss used to used to hide it from me how many sackfuls he had that day. Um, but there was a huge um there was a huge uh feeling within the public that you know this sort of thing just couldn't happen, particularly if there was a religious organisation attached to the children's home or a or a residential school. Um and eventually, eventually, um by the time I had about a thousand victims, the public realised that yes, it was true and it was happening, and it was happening in other countries, and Scotland was no different from anywhere else. Um, so there were a lot of stories there that I exposed. Um we campaigned for change and we we asked for um an inquiry, a judicial-led inquiry, which is still ongoing today. It took a long time for it to come, but the child abuse inquiry in Scotland was something that we asked for. Um, another thing I asked for was we looked for um specialist police um investigators because it's such a complex crime, um, and you know, a lot of victims find it difficult to speak about it. Sometimes they are not what they would call the perfect victim, and especially back in those days, if you were a child who'd been sent to a listie school for stealing a tie. I remember one little boy, his parents had been, they were both alcoholics and they had no money at all, and the children used to basically scavenge for food, and every single day he got the belt at school because he didn't have a tie, a school tie, and he stole a tie out of a shop, and of course he got caught. Um, and he got sent to this listy school um for stealing, and I think he did three or four years in there, and it the brutality in there was horrific. Um, I mean, still today people would find it hard to understand and accept it. And back in those days, they were really um, you know, they they didn't want to believe that something like that had gone on under their nose. So people like that, they they remain in my mind all the time.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

How do you how do you cope yourself in breaking a story like that? You you were saying you had you had sackfuls of hate mail. How do you cope within yourself to be resilient and stand in that truth and keep going? What what gives you your strength?

SPEAKER_02 16:34

I think it's the the victims, because without without us giving them a voice, um that would have continued on and there would never have been your child abuse inquiry, there would never have been the specialist police squads that we now have investigating child abuse, there would never have been an awareness, those places would still have been going, you know they eventually shut them down. Um, and I think you know the just the awareness that this was happening. I think that that's the thing that drives me on. It's always the victims, always.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

We we spoke to the editor of the Sunday Post recently, and he was telling us about a story that had moved him, and it was a story you'd been involved with, and it was the murder of Emma Caldwell in Glasgow.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Um I think it was yourself and was it Jim White potentially that had done that? But you said it was your resilience in chasing that and keeping it going and keeping it in public climelight that brought eventually the killer to justice.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Yes, it did, yeah. There was for many, many years people ignored the fact that this very dangerous man um was still running around um and you know he was he was attacking other women. I'm sure there are other victims out there that we'll we have we we won't know about. Um but yeah, I I I felt that the police had they'd looked at the wrong at the wrong um perpetrators, and the police sometimes they go off on a tangent, and it's very hard for them to say we made a mistake and to go back to the beginning again and start again, and they had been focused on uh you know a number of um perpetrators that weren't they weren't the they weren't the person who was involved, um and they were just totally focused on that and they had no interest in going after the real guy, meanwhile he was out there raping and abusing other people. And um I just felt we had to keep going, we had to tell the truth, we had to expose both them and um the system, and we had to get justice for for Emma and her mother. Um, and the greatest sadness was the fact that um her her poor dad wasn't, he didn't, he wasn't alive to see um you know that justice coming. Um there's an inquiry now going on in how police handled things. Um and I think that's right. I think we should have inquiries when things go badly wrong, because we all rely on bodies like the police to bring us justice and to find the truth.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

What what would that have meant to Emma's mum for you to keep carrying on that campaign to find justice? What what did that bring to her?

SPEAKER_02 19:16

I think I think it brought some peace to her that if eventually um the truth was coming out, and I think it brought some peace that you know our daughter got some kind of justice.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Um deservedly so.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I think I think when I look back and all the stories I've done, I I think that's the thing. It's the the victims and if you know the giving them a voice is the main thing, and you have some justice. I I I remember the um one of the things I did sort of fairly recently was I I did a major investigation into mesh implants that were used to treat women, and NHS brought these mesh implants in to save £200 per patient, um, rather than doing it was for they were being brought in to treat women for uh birth injuries after they've they've they'd given birth, you know, bladder issues, etc. And rather than do the old-fashioned hitch and stitch operations that had worked for years, they decided that they would bring in a plastic mesh kit. And it's exactly the same plastic that you you get everywhere. You know, it's um um it's made of fishing wire, it's exactly the same, it's poly it's uh plastic basically. And um they they they decided they were going to save £200 per person by using these kits, but what they weren't realizing is that almost a third of these women were left with life-changing injuries. Some of them ended up in wheelchairs, they lost organs, they lost bowel, their bowel function, their bladder function, um, and the doctors kept saying that this is a gold standard treatment, and they refused to accept that there was something wrong. Um, and thankfully, through our hard campaigning, Scotland became the first country in the world to have those mesh implants removed from uh our hospitals, and as a result of that, other countries across the world uh followed. Um, and much to the anger of the mesh manufacturers, you know, they're there were big, big corporations that were earning billions despite the fact that you know they were causing dreadful, dreadful injuries. And we've had an inquiry, we've had um we've had uh a Baroness inquiry, Baroness Cumberledge, she she's ruled that um these victims should rightly receive some compensation. However, just like the Wasby women, the government are are trailing on that. Um, but we have been able to get them across to America to get their their mess removed because the surgeons here just couldn't do it at the time. Um so that's that's something I'm very proud of, and I think back. And that. I think so far we've saved something like 2,000 women a year from possible life-changing injuries. So it just shows you the power of the newspaper.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

There's one other story I wanted to ask you about, Marion, which is centred around women. Yeah. And it was actually a story that brought us together. But earlier this year, the Sunday Post ran a front cover story, your story, about the dangers that women face in their own homes through domestic violence. And you the Sunday Post did this most powerful cover of some of the women that had been killed. And we just found it as a credit union that work in a community, that you know, we're a national organisation and we care deeply about our female members. We got in touch with the Sunday Post immediately and said, How can we help? What can we do? But I just wondered if that that story shows real influence into impact. Because I guess we're hoping from that story we can do more in collaboration. And I uh give me your thoughts on on why it was important to bring that story to light, but also how that can't be the end of the story.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

Oh no, it it can't it cannot be the end. I think it's maybe halfway halfway through the story, maybe. But no, I think we've got a lot of really incredible plans that I think that I hope that we can bring off and work together because I think um, first of all, it's posing it because I think people every single day um there's violence towards women, there's violence that children see it affects their lives for the rest of their lives. It's the biggest domestic violence is the you know it's the biggest threat to family life in in our country today, and if we ignore it, we ignore it at our peril because um it it can affect there's not a family in Scotland, put it this way, there's not a family in Scotland that has not been touched by domestic abuse. Um, and it doesn't just affect people living in a housing scheme, it affects every single family right across Scotland. Um, and it doesn't matter whether you're a chief executive or a of a company um or you're you're you're you're working in tech school. Um this it's exactly the same. If if you're being abused and violated and you're living in fear, um then it's a it's a it's a it's a horrific crime against women and children, mostly women. I mean there are occasions where men will suffer um abuse, but by far and large it's it's women. And I just think if we if we continue to ignore this, what kind of uh society are we? Um we're a lot more educated now into understanding just the effects that um domestic abuse um can have on on people. I mean it's a lifelong effect, it's it doesn't just happen once and then it goes away. So um I think the fact that we know that, I think it's really important that we do something about it now. Uh and I it's a very difficult subject, and I know it's hard to get people to look at it um and say, look, this is happening on your doorstep, because it is. Um but I think we have to, and I think by showing when I went to my boss and I said, Look, I want to show um all the women that have been lost in the the last term of the parliament. Um, and I think he had a hairy canary thinking, how the how on earth are we going to get all these women's pictures? But we did really well, and um I think it was a really iconic front page. I think it really brought the message across, you know, right in your face that you know this is happening, and it's the lady next door. And um one of the things that really struck me was the ages of the women. There were there was a you know, from 16 to in in the 90s. I thought, my goodness, you know, even at 90 years old, you're not free from something like this happening to you and upending your life.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

And it was so moving for us, Marion, because you and and the editor of the Sunday Post, you were able to present an award at our most recent Money Made Human Awards and give that to Scottish Women's Aid who stand in that territory every day. So it was it was such a move in collaboration, and we thank you for that. And it was hopefully it's the beginning of a journey that we can do more to help help these uh survivors.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

Yeah, well I I hope so because I think I think together we have I think together you and I students spoke for a few minutes, and just even in those few minutes, we came up with a few ideas and suggestions that could actually probably help change the lives of so many people. So I'm I'm really looking forward to working with you to make that a reality, and I'm sure it will be. Um, I think it's it takes somebody to think out the box, um, and I think you've got that in spades and and making it happen. And and uh I'm looking forward to that. I think I think if you can do something like that and and leave that behind, I think that's a very special thing to do.

SPEAKER_01 27:19

Same to you, same to you in spades. Madam, before we we're gonna do a quick fire round of questions and answers uh with you, but before we get to that, I would just wonder what's your hopes for journalism going forward for yourself, first of all, um, because you've had this immense career, but what do you still want to achieve? And what's your hopes for journalism globally in the future?

SPEAKER_02 27:46

Yeah. What I would still like to achieve is actually I would love to live in a Scotland where there is no violence, and there is no violence and there is no sexual abuse of women and children, that women and children are you know, there's no exploitation of them. Um if um if we can get to that, I I do think we can get to that place, um, but we have to have the right politicians. Um and for all kinds of reasons, um, a lot of things that should have happened this year ended up not happening. Um, and I think politicians need to look at themselves and say, you know, if that was my child, if that was my daughter, um what would I want for them? And I think we need to hold the politicians to account because ultimately they are the ones with the power to make the change that can make people's lives so much, so much different. Um, and I think we need to do so much more of that. So, my aim this year and the coming years is to hold them to account even more than I have already. Um, violence against women and children is going to be our huge focus in the Sunday Post for the foreseeable future until it ends. Um, and we're working towards that focus, and if we can achieve that, um I think this will be an incredible country to live in. It's small enough to make change like that. I think along the way we need to bring men with us, um, and that's very, very important, um, so that men can call out others and don't feel embarrassed to get back to the days when it, you know, people used to drink and drive and now they don't, and people would be horrified thinking that folk were suspecting them of doing so. I want to see that happening for violence against women and children. Um, but we can't do that without men as well. So I I hope there's lots of incredible men out there, and we just need them to use their voices.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

I love that. I love your passion for it. What about journalism in general globally? We have to we have to keep shining a light on that.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Yeah, absolutely. Um the Sunday Post is one of the very few newspapers that still does proper investigations and campaigns. Um, and unfortunately, over the years, everybody used to buy a paper. You used to buy several papers. Um nowadays it's very rare for people to buy a newspaper, and that's really sad. It saddened me because I think we play and still play a huge role in society. Um but because uh the the number of newspapers are no longer selling, selling as much as they used to, then the number of journalists are getting fewer and fewer and fewer. And we saw what happened in America where you know swathes, hundreds of journalists were were put out to grass and they're no longer working in the industry. Um, and eventually the place became like a wild west, and nobody was being held to account. So they're now seeing the resurgence of papers again over there. Um, I hope that doesn't happen here and that you know we don't lose everything to start again. Um, because we do, I think Scotland in particular, it's a small enough country to make change, and we could do incredible things. And I think having a healthy um newspaper industry is something that's it's needed. We can't make these changes without politicians and people in power being held to account.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

Oh, absolutely, for sure. Now we're gonna ask you some quickfire questions. We're just being joined by your team from headquarters. So, guys, we've got some quickfire questions for Marion.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

We do. We have some questions from the team. The first question we have is what has been the most defining moment of your journalism career so far?

SPEAKER_02 31:58

Oh my goodness. So you really put me on the spot. I think I think seeing um seeing Emma Caldwell's uh killer uh jailed, um we're busy fighting for Denise Clare, um uh and who was involved in the David Goodwillie uh rape allegations. Um the mesh, I think the mesh, if you look at the number of uh well, I and child abuse as well. There's too many. You put me on the spot, there's too many there's too many. I can't I can't choose, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

Great. Um so the next question is what is the most inspiring story you have reported on?

SPEAKER_02 32:43

The most inspiring story. Well, I think that when I was doing the the mesh um you know, the mesh scandal, there was a lady, although all of those ladies were inspiring. Um they were you know very badly injured by these mesh implants. Some of them were in wheelchairs, and you know, they couldn't walk, they couldn't stand, their lives had been completely decimated. And nothing we did was going to change what had happened to them, but they fought so hard to change things for other women to ensure that other women would never get injured. So I think probably the mesh women were probably some of the most inspiring women I've ever met in my life.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

Wow, amazing. The other question we have from the team is what would your best piece of advice be to someone starting out in life?

SPEAKER_02 33:37

In life, be be yourself, be true to yourself and be true to your heart. Because I think if you are true to yourself, you'll always be the best version of yourself and you'll always be you'll be happy, I think. It's when you try to be someone else that other problems sneak in. So I think be yourself and be proud of yourself.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

We love that. We love that. So the last question is what are you reading, watching, or listening to right now?

SPEAKER_02 34:10

Oh, um, I am uh a complete fiend for Agatha Christie, believe it or not. So I I read Agatha Crispy Christie novels late at night, um, and she is still the queen of crime for me. I read it, I I I read them back to back, you know, I just go back to them all the time, um, and I still love her. Uh, and that that that's that's what that's what I read last thing at night. And I and of course, all the murder mysteries that's on television are my ghoul.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

Brilliant. Amazing. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 34:44

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

That's okay. Um just before you go, Girls, I've got one last question, Marion, for you about I'd like to just go back to your grandfather that you spoke about at the start. What was what was his first name? Jim. Jim. And you talked about the impact of a scam, I guess, had on him and his life. I just wonder what he would say about the powerhouse of you and how perhaps that incident, whilst at the time was affecting actually what good has come of it, the hundreds of people you've helped as a result. I just wonder what Jim would think of you.

SPEAKER_02 35:27

I think he would be very proud. You probably wouldn't understand why all the things that I've done and get have got up to over the years. But yeah, I think he would be very, very proud. And um he would have said, more power, more power to you. And um he was uh he was an incredible man, he was only about five foot two. He was an incredible man, that's why I'm a bit short of Lim myself. But yeah, uh yeah, he he he he was an incredible guy. And despite the fact he couldn't read or write, it didn't stop him, you know, doing what he did. And it was just such a tragedy that the the scammers got hold of him. But he would have been proud, especially when they were all one by one sent to jail or they were ruined in one way or another through their own greed. So I think he would have been just for that.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

I can't think uh I can't think uh he would be you know proud, proud might be one word, but what a powerhouse he's had to help in creating. You've been one of our, I think I can say in behalf of the team, one of our most favourite guests. Oh just just by your natural ability to to stand up for others. And you know, credit unions play a big part in people's lives, so we we keep we care. But I really saw that in you today as well, and uh very grateful for you joining us. So, everyone, thank you, Marine Scott. Such an honour to have you here with us. It's very kind of you. Thank you. Thanks for listening to the Money Made Human podcast. We're grateful to spend time with you and hope you enjoyed it. If you want to join a credit union, choose us with love. Until the next time, first class credit union.