Every community, they say, has a beating heart – and that’s certainly the case with Gatehouse.
The riverside town deservedly has gained plaudits for its can-do attitude and boasts a vibrant community spirit the envy of many.
That’s due in no small part to the collective efforts of a dynamic set of characters of all ages and backgrounds whose year-round efforts are focussed on doing everything possible to help Gatehouse thrive in the good times and ride out the bad.
At the centre of this remarkable civic effort is Sara-leigh Cain to whom, it seems, spare time is as rare a commodity as hen’s teeth.
Chatting to her in TGB Gatehouse, the activities and volunteering hub she runs in the town, it’s clear the community initiative, which gained charitable status in 2013, has become a source of great pride.
Underpinning the enterprise, I learn, is Gatehouse Community Church – one of 40 Assemblies of God (AoG) churches across Scotland.
Sara-leigh, who celebrated her 47th birthday on Monday, is a deacon and regularly takes Sunday services in the town’s community centre.
Dickie to her maiden name, Sara-leigh tells me she was born in Irvine on July 18, 1975, and moved with her family to a house “right behind Hampden Park” in Mount Florida, Glasgow, three years later.
Football games often drew huge crowds – which brought a pocket money windfall to the enterprising wee Dickie girl living nearby.
“I remember after big match days being able to collect all the ginger (Irn Bru) bottles lying around Hampden,” Sara-leigh laughs.
“They had just been left by the fans but I could cash them in at the wee corner shop.
“For each one returned you got 10p which meant I could buy sweeties!”
After 11 years in Glasgow the Dickies were on the move again – this time to England and a little place called Albert Village, around 20 miles south of Derby.
“My dad Allan worked for British Rail Engineering,” Sara-leigh explains.
“I was 14 and went to grammar school in Ashby-de-la-Zouch and that’s where I discovered the subject of drama.
“I really enjoyed having a wider variety of subjects – there was everything from ceramics to psychology and drama which was my favourite.
“I went to Melton Mowbray College for my A-levels in performing arts, contemporary dance, theatre studies, English language and English literature and intended to go to drama school.”
That ambition, however, was never to be fulfilled as Sara-leigh recounts what brought the family back to Scotland – this time to Galloway.
“The railway works where my dad worked closed and he took voluntary redundancy,” she says.
“I was 20 and had finished at Melton Mowbray and taken a year out.
“My dad was offered the chance to go to Thailand with British Rail on some project they were doing over there.
“But he did not want to take us away over there and after the summer we decided to move to Gatehouse.
“We knew about the town because the whole family always had caravans at Auchenlarie – four altogether!
“We all used to congregate there through the school holidays from wherever we lived.”
The culture shock of moving to a small Galloway town having known only the hustle and bustle of Glasgow and the English Midlands was hard to handle, Sara-leigh admits.
But soon there were compensations in the shape of a certain Ian Cain – who she first encountered through a pane of glass.
“Being a bit of a city girl I struggled at first with living in a little town,” she says.
“But then I met Ian the local window cleaner who was cleaning my mum’s windows in our flat behind the Spar.
“He saw me through the window and asked if I fancied going out for a drink.
“I didn’t give him an answer straight away but eventually I agreed – and we are 24 years married this year!”
To keep herself busy she went to Dumfries College to do a two-year HND in leisure management.
Then shopping in the Co-op one day her mum Debbie pointed out a poster saying the police were recruiting.
“I popped in an application to become a PC,” Sara-leigh recalls.
“It was a hectic time – I left college, went through the recruitment process for the police and got married all at once!
“Luckily there was a three-week gap between the wedding and my start date with the police which allowed us to head off on our honeymoon.”
Sara-leigh winces at the memory of how she and Ian had to endure a miserable first two weeks together as man and wife – aboard an accident-prone liner on a Mediterranean cruise.
“We left Port Glasgow and our first stop was supposed to be Liverpool but the ship hit the dock at Liverpool and had to have urgent repairs,” she chuckles.
“Then one of the engines knackered up in the Bay of Biscay in a huge storm.
“We just slept through it but when we woke up in the morning there was sick everywhere.
“The one thing I was looking forward to was our stop at Monaco and Monte Carlo.
“But I had to say goodbye to that too – we couldn’t dock or go ashore because it was too rough.
“Then whole thing was the biggest disaster ever.”
After completing basic training at the Tulliallan police college, Sara-leigh was a local PC for three years, based at Newton Stewart.
Then, in December 2000, daughter Jazmine came along – a life-changing event, Sara-leigh explains, which prompted a rethink of life’s priorities.
“I decided to leave the force after having Jaz because I wanted to concentrate on bringing up my family,” she says.
“Then after Poppy was born in 2004 I went to work as a drug and alcohol support worker at Lochbank, a Christian rehabilitation unit at Borgue called the Walking Free Centre.
“I would support families affected by addiction, anybody affected by addiction, either in the centre or by outreach.
“I loved the job – I felt I could make a positive impact on people’s lives, particularly the children whose lives had been affected.
“When the Lochbank Trust closed after seven and a half years working there I decided to go back to uni and got an honours degree in community education and participation at Hamilton.
“The course was based at home and I only had to attend one or two days a month.”
It’s clear that Sara-leigh’s faith is the keystone of her life.
And that isn’t entirely a surprise when I learn that as a wee girl growing up in Glasgow she had an imaginary friend – called Jesus.
Her holy accomplice went with her everywhere which sometimes led to hilarious situations.
“My great-gran Sarah Donaldson was quite a proper lady,” she smiles.
“One day we were in Fraser’s department store and they had a guy there who operated the lift.
“As he closed the doors I shouted ‘he’s left Jesus behind and closed him out of the lift!’
“My great-gran was mortified.
“I was only three at the time and my mum and gran were a bit bemused too.”
How did she come to the church in later life, I wonder?
“I was expecting Jaz and met a couple in neo-natal classes in Kirkcudbright,” Sara-leigh recalls.
“Ian and I got on really well with them and we used to go to each other’s houses for tea.
“It turned out that they went to Gatehouse Christian Fellowship and we started going to some social events with them through the church.
“It was really community-focused which I liked, and it was very welcoming – just like a big family.
“Some time after that I ended up helping with the children at the church then about ten years ago a new pastor, Chris Barratt, took over and the name was changed to Gatehouse Community Church, at which point I became a deacon.
“We are an Assemblies of God church, which is an evangelical church, and I take some of the family services on Sunday.
“We have decent numbers but we do online services as well which we started through Covid and are really popular.
“People from all over the country get connected on a Sunday and it’s how TGB was formed.”
TGB, Sara-leigh tells me, dates back to a youth group formed over 20 years ago and since then has blossomed into an inter-generational social enterprise where people of all ages enjoy a range of group activities and volunteering opportunities within the town.
“Over the years we have seen thousands of young people come through the doors,” she says with not a little pride.
“At the moment we have 70 on the books for Bunkeroo – and that’s just one group.
“One of the proudest moments was seeing young people who started coming from as young as three, who didn’t have a lot of confidence, progressing through to become young leaders themselves at 12.
“They completed their Saltire certificates through volunteering within the groups and by gaining leadership skills.
“Several have subsequently been employed by us as sessional workers, running holiday camps and specific activities.
“TGB concentrates on filling gaps within the community and working alongside other organisations.
“We have Step Out for widows, widowers and people on their own, the Men’s Shed and TGB Futures, through which we help people with job applications, interview skills and place them in volunteering opportunities.
“There’s a book club and a coffee and crochet club and through our Eddie the Teddy project the ladies knit teddies which go into ambulances across Dumfries and Galloway as a comfort for young children.
“It’s all about encouraging and supporting people who have a skill to come along and help others enjoy it,” Sara-leigh adds.
“One lady in the crochet group who came along to volunteer with TGB now leads a group and shares her skills with other people.
“All our group activities are accessible to all. Recently we hired a coach to take young people to see the Lion King in Edinburgh and it didn’t cost them a penny.
“Of everybody on the coach, 24 had never set foot inside a theatre before so it was really nice to help them gain a new experience.
“The look on their faces was priceless!”
Away from TGB and the church, Sara-leigh somehow finds time to be chairperson of the Gatehouse Gala committee, a role she’s held for two years since joining the committee in 2015.
“I loved taking my girls Jazmine and Poppy to the gala events,” she smiles.
“A big part of me says that if you are enjoying something you should do something towards it.
“The gala is a brilliant community event.
“It’s always great to see so many people gravitate back to Gatehouse for gala week.
“This is such a brilliant community for people taking ownership and doing stuff – everybody comes to help and that makes it a success.
“The gala this year will be so much easier than 2021 when, because of all the Covid regulations, there was so much paperwork to enable the gala to go ahead.
“We were literally checking the changes daily to see what safety procedures had to be put in place.
“It was hard work but the community felt it was important to put something on to bring some light relief at what was a difficult time.”
Gatehouse’s famous torchlight procession is the highlight for Sara-leigh – a spectacle never to be forgotten by participants and spectators alike.
“It’s a massive event and my favourite,” she smiles.
“When you get to the top of the street at clock tower and look behind and see all these hundreds of torches and hear the bagpipes, it’s one of those catch your breath moments.”
Having a jam-packed schedule and a constant whirl of commitments would be a burden to many but Sara-leigh seems unfazed by it all.
“I’m really proud and privileged to be part of this community,” she says.
“A zest for working within the community has been instilled in me by my mum and dad, Debbie and Allan.
“I can’t think of a better place in which I would have wanted to bring up my two
daughters.
“Along with Ian, they both volunteer for TGB Gatehouse and have done since they were 12.
“Hopefully they will continue doing work within the community in some way or other.”
