For Marie McNair, room five at St Margaret of Scotland Hospice isn’t just a room anymore – it’s where her mum died.

The Clydebank councillor’s connection to the hospice stretches throughout her life, from her earliest years to her vote with West Dunbartonshire Council colleagues last month to unanimously back the charity.

St Margaret’s is the family which looked after four women in her life, the former employer who changed her outlook, and the mission she’s committed to saving along with all of Clydebank.

As the hospice and others work to ensure its long-term future and avoid any means testing of patients, life-long Whitecrook resident Marie spoke about what the institution means to her.

She started training to be a nurse in September 1993 at the age of 18, but had to leave just two months later after her dad died.

But she later turned to special needs support at James Watt College and was hired as an auxiliary nurse at the hospice’s palliative care ward in 1999.

“It’s a very calming environment, but it’s a busy 30-bed ward and it can change in a heartbeat,” she said in the uncharacteristic quiet of Clydebank’s council chambers last week.

“It’s like a family. Effectively you’re working in situations where your colleague is your left or right hand – that’s how intimate the care is.”

Though loved ones do pass away at the hospice, Marie said it is not all “doom and gloom” – it’s a happy place too.

She said many patients over the years would share their stories of life, and her 14 years at the hospice changed her in many ways.

“It’s a very intimate job to be bathing someone and get their whole life story,” she said.

“These patients actually shared with me things that they had never shared with others, it was as if they were removing a weight off their shoulders by sharing these thoughts.

“I was very privileged to have had the opportunity to look after folk at their time of greatest need – it’s very spiritual; it’s hard to explain, but it will stay with me for the rest of my life.

“I was inspired by many of the patients’ strength of mind and determination to live. Every day I wake up grateful to be alive. You see how fragile life is and it makes you appreciate your life.”

When Marie was too young to remember, her granny Agnes White died at the hospice in 1975.

In 1999, her gran Minty died there just six months after Marie started working at the hospice. And in January, her cousin Roberta White passed away, aged just 48.

But it was her mum’s time at the hospice that was hardest.

In October 2011, Gail White went into the hospice for three weeks respite. She never left and died in room five on February 28, 2012, aged 68. Marie left the hospice that December.

“I realised rooms weren’t rooms,” she said. “My mum died in room five, it was not room five anymore.

“When I wrote my resignation, I said that. It will always be my mum’s room.

“It was an emotional night when I left the hospice for the last time. The hospice helped me develop into the person I am today.”

Marie was first elected in 2003 and said the hospice was always supportive of her political life running in parallel to her care work.

The 41-year-old’s elected position means she can continue to champion St Margaret’s work.

The Scottish Government’s independent review of NHS continuing healthcare signalled the phasing out of NHS continuing healthcare and the introduction of hospital-based complex clinical care.

The changed definitions, which St Margaret’s is too unique to sit within, led to the NHS passing off funding of 28 continuing care beds to the West Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership.

That could lead to means testing of patients before they ever get to those beds. In January, the council voted unanimously against any possibility of that being implemented.

“It will never be a care home – that would change everything,” Marie insisted. “St Margaret’s has had a question mark over funding for the last 10 years. We need to take the pressure off the hospice and let them do what they do best.

“They don’t need to be spending time finding solutions to their funding.”

Marie has been fundraising for the hospice ever since she worked there and is happy to keep doing so, even if she jokingly admits friends run a mile when they see she’s taking on another challenge.

But there are few residents who haven’t been touched directly or indirectly by the work of the hospice, and their support and love for St Margaret’s is unbowed. “The hospice journeys with people from start to finish, showing support for the families,” said Marie. “It’s not just looking after the person.

“It’s a place that’s very, very close to my heart and I will do anything to assist them.

“When you hear this threat to them, you want to do anything you can. And I will. No stone should be left unturned to find a solution. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty and doing what I have to do.”

A little more than four years after leaving the hospice, Marie still misses it.

“It’s a very special place,” she added.