Face to Face: Sister Rita Dawson, chief executive of St Margaret of Scotland Hospice, Clydebank

"The first number of years I was here we had no money at all and that was a challenge. We were out fundraising every night and every day. The hospice has been here for 65 years and I know that is a result of the wonderful people in the area and far beyond. I also believe in something greater than myself and therefore at the end of the day providence does provide," she considers.

"When you're sailing very close to going into the red a legacy or something will come in, and that makes all the difference. You're very near it and think, 'Oh God, what are we going to do?' Every penny that comes in goes to patient care, I can assure you of that."

It costs an average of £40,000 a week to keep the healthcare facility with 150 staff running, offering beds to 58 patients and treatment to another 50 in the day hospice, as well as outpatients and community nurses. Non-denominational, the hospice is open to everyone aged 16 and over with a life-limiting illness and in need of care.

Sister Rita arrived more than 25 years ago as matron and in that time another storey has been added to the building on East Barns Street and the restaurant for patients and families extended. In terms of patient care the developments have been phenomenal: community palliative care set up with nurses going out into the community, an education centre, a hydrotherapy pool, a day hospice and a unit with single and twin rooms for frail elderly with complex medical and nursing needs.

The girl from Tipperary who left home at 18 to become a nun has been at the helm of the hospice as it forges new paths in the 21st century but never forgets the thinking of Mary Aikenhead who founded the Religious Congregation of the Sisters of Charity in 1815, the order that went on to set up the Clydebank hospice. If there is a need for help and nursing care, the sisters strive to provide it.

The youngest of seven and the only girl – "My mother always said that she would have liked to have had a couple of girls but she never asked for anything, only a healthy child. So when I came along there was great rejoicing" – she said she knew she wanted to be a nun from the age of about 12 or 13.

"I used to pass the church on my way to school and on my way home and I always stopped and went in. I knew I wanted to be in a position where I could help people. I'm kind of a bit of a contradiction in many ways because I love lots of things. I used to imagine I would have a nice house and then one part of me would say, 'No, that's not for me'," she remembers.

"There was that pull to religious life and to commit myself to a way of life that I would find fulfilling. I knew that at an early age but I didn't really understand what the call was, what it meant. So gradually I thought about it and then I decided I would try it.

"My parents were devastated, my father was terribly upset. He didn't come to my first profession. I can still see my father and mother the day I left home. If somebody asked me what did I regret about that was, when you're that age you don't realise the impact it has. My father was standing there and he was heartbroken. He couldn't really cope with it in any sort of shape or form. It was very much going away – we didn't have the freedom then we have now."

The strict, disciplined life in the mother house in Dublin meant all her letters were read and family visits were restricted.

"There's no point saying it was easy because it wasn't. The fact that we didn't get home very much was a big sacrifice – not for me but for my parents. But I had to do what I had to do. My father was very cross with my mother."

She adds, laughing: "He said, 'She didn't get that religion from me, she must have got it from your side'. My mother just said, 'I'm not going to stand in any of their ways. If that's what she wants to do, I support it.'"

Friendships forged in those early months and years in the order remain strong bonds today as the teenage girls started nursing and undertook spiritual training. Sister Rita began in paediatrics in Dublin and moved on to work in Bath and at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London to further her studies and knowledge in the field of oncology before moving to Clydebank.

If the hospice wasn't here she believes there would be a lot of vulnerable people.

"The hospice is not just about looking after the patient, it looks after the whole family. Probably the worst thing that can happen to you is for somebody to tell you there is nothing more that can be done. The hospice is not just about that, it can be about supporting someone for a good number of years because they can be referred to outpatients or to the day hospice," she says.

"It's about helping and supporting people to live a good quality of life, whatever the illness is.

The support for the family is tremendous. For example, last night we had five families here. There is a finality about the final hours in any person's life and for the families that is so painful. I always think it's the worst pain in the world. I don't think there is anything worse that can happen to you than to say goodbye to somebody that you love.

"You never forget somebody who has helped you at that most critical time in your life. I know that personally myself. And you cannot afford to get that wrong. The most important thing is that you have empathy.

"You need to have staff who are totally committed to that and have real understanding and empathy for the families. There is no point coming into this field if you just come for a job. It's not a job, it's much more than that."

She is emphatic in making that last point, and again when we go on to discuss the core values of the organisation that are put into action every day.

"They are at the very heart of all our meetings and all of our decision-making. All the staff will be able to tell you what they mean and how they put them into practice. There's no point in having them on the walls, they are lived daily in this hospice," she says.

Sister Rita's name was in the headlines throughout a much-publicised five-year battle with the NHS over funding. It is still not over though she says it has improved and acknowledges the fact that without the health board the hospice would not be here.

This year, coinciding with the 65th anniversary of the hospice, she was awarded an MBE, an accolade she dedicates to and accepts on behalf of all of the team.

"I'm very proud of the people who work with us and the tremendous effort they go to every day to reach for excellence. I always say, 'We have to keep striving'. We have got very good reports. I'm very proud of the fact that so many families are sometimes just overwhelmed with the care. That's what I'm really most proud of," she says

"People don't know how to say thank you because they so appreciate everything that is done. Sometimes they come in after a bad experience and we spend time because that's our role, we're trained to do that. That really is for me the most satisfying part of the job."

There is a twinkle in her eye when I ask her about her reputation as a tipster. Sister Rita has appeared on BBC Radio 4' Today programme ahead of the Grand National to offer her predicted winners.

"It happened by accident more than anything else because I think there were three years that I gave out names of horses and people won and were very excited about it," she smiles.

"I am a little bit of a gambler by nature, I think. I'm very disciplined about what I do."

The Grand National and Cheltenham race meetings are among her favourites on the calendar. "We always watch here, we have our own sweepstake. It's a bit of fun, you need a bit of fun in your life."

Those contradictions again – they make a winning formula.

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