David Donaldson MBE
David Donaldson, founder and owner of LE Graphics, has been awarded an MBE by her Majesty The Queen for Services to Charity and the Community in Northern Ireland. The award was announced in the 2022 New Year’s Honours list.
"It has been very much a team effort"
Speaking of the award David said:
“I am honoured and deeply humbled to have been awarded an MBE by Her Majesty The Queen.
First and foremost I would like to dedicate this award to my wife Edith. Without her support, encouragement and, indeed, a fair bit of patience I would never have been able to achieve the things which I have in support of good causes. It has been very much a team effort and this award is hers as much as mine.”
“I would also like to thank my parents. Sadly my father Robert passed away almost a year ago. I know that he would have been extremely proud of this award as I am proud of the role model that he was to me. I will be forever grateful for the guidance that both he and my mother Esther have given me over the years.”
Fundraising
David has been supporting and fundraising for charities for over thirty years. As far back as the early 1990’s he organized several events to raise funds for BBC’s Children in Need and has continued supporting good causes ever since.
The main thrust of his fundraising since 2002 has been in support of Northern Ireland based Action Cancer and his endeavours have seen him take part in physical challenges all around the globe to raise money and awareness for Action Cancer. David has raised over one hundred thousand pounds for Action Cancer in the intervening years and is planning his tenth international trek for May 2022 when, accompanied by his daughter Kelly, he will take on the soaring temperatures of the Arizona Desert, once again in the name of Action Cancer.
Community Support
In March 2020, at the start of the first corona virus lockdown LE Graphics was forced to close. Being aware of the of the acute shortage of PPE for healthcare workers David was quick to react and use his experience in manufacturing along with the resources of his business to start manufacturing face shields for the South West Acute Hospital. This was done on a purely voluntary basis and quickly expanded whenever David started raising funds to source other products which were in short supply at the time, such as hand sanitizer, masks and gloves and distribute these to local health care teams, residential homes and hospitals. All in all the efforts resulted in over seventy thousand pounds worth of PPE being provided totally free of charge to those in the front line in our local community and further afield.
“The early stage of the covid-19 pandemic were a scary time for us all but especially for the health care teams working to look after us. I was delighted to have been able to do something to help. Of course I didn’t do it alone and I must pay tribute to the great team at LE Graphics along with my family and many friends who freely gave up their time during lockdown to keep the production of mask rolling and to help with distributing PPE and other supplies around the community.”
David also served his community for over seventeen years as a crew commander in the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service. He lives in Enniskillen with his wife Edith who works along side him in LE Graphics and together they are proud parents to three children Justin, Kelly and Lisa.
"Overwhelmed"
“I was overwhelmed with the support we received from so many members of the public who donated to our fundraising campaign and helped us to achieve so much. Without the backing of the amazing people of our local community we would never have been able to achieve as much as we did.”
David and Edith were also honoured to receive an invitation from Buckingham Palace to attend the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Service at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.
