Over the years, the shop moved premises from one street to another, adapting as Dundee changed. But what never changed was the commitment behind it.
And today, in a different Oxfam shop across the city, Lorna’s daughter Barbara still volunteers nearly six decades after her mum first unlocked that original door.
This is a story about legacy. But it’s also a story about humour, humility, and a lifetime of living your values.
Before there was a shop
Before the first Oxfam shop opened in the summer of 1967, there was fundraising and a lot of hard graft.
Lorna organised sponsored walks. She filled Dundee’s Caird Hall with a huge toy fair, complete with Santa arriving on a fire brigade ladder. She hosted coffee evenings at the Angus Hotel. Everything was donated. Everything was volunteered. Everything was community-powered.
“She was never away from it,” Barbara remembers. “There were meetings in the house all the time.”
Lorna had always been an activist. As a young woman she collected for the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. During and after the Second World War she sent parcels to families in Germany. She believed deeply in international solidarity.
Opening Dundee’s first Oxfam shop wasn’t a career move. It was a natural extension of who she was.
Growing up Oxfam
For Barbara, Oxfam wasn’t something she discovered later in life. It was always there.
As a teenager, she helped with door-to-door collections and fundraising at football matches.
“At 14 or 15 it annoyed me,” she laughs. “There were always meetings in the house, it really impeded my social life!”
But the values stuck.
Barbara has bought her clothes from Oxfam for as long as she can remember. She still does. Her sons used to joke that they never got anything new growing up.
“They say they got all their clothes from Oxfam,” she laughs. “And they probably did.”
And then there’s the pram story.
When Barbara had her first baby at 18, she had her heart set on a beautiful Silver Cross pram; elegant, polished, the kind she’d dreamed about.
She came into the kitchen one Saturday to find something very different waiting for her. Her mum had bought a second-hand pram from Oxfam instead.
“That will do you, my girl,” she told her.
Barbara was absolutely horrified at the time.
Now she tells the story with laughter.
Because that was her mum through and through. Practical. Principled. Unapologetic. If there was a good pram in the Oxfam shop, that was the pram you bought.
She didn’t just fundraise for Oxfam. She lived it.
“When I retire, I’ll volunteer too,” Barbara always said. And she did.
Seventeen years and counting
Barbara left work at Lochee Library one week and started volunteering at Oxfam Lochee the next. That was nearly 17 years ago.
The link to her mum’s work runs straight through her like a stick of rock.
Same city. Same cause. Same belief that ordinary people can make an extraordinary difference.
Now 76, Barbara works weekly shifts and describes her Saturday team affectionately as “the Saturday morning geriatrics.” There’s laughter. There’s homemade cake. There’s community.
And there’s commitment.
Over the years, Barbara estimates she has raised thousands of pounds for Oxfam through shop volunteering, fundraising and walking mile after mile in sponsored challenges.
She’s completed the Kiltwalk. She’s tackled 10-mile routes. She’s planning more.
“I don’t have a lot of money,” she says. “But I can give my time.”
The bigger picture
Barbara’s motivation is simple.
“In this country, you turn on the tap and you get clean water. You have a flushing toilet. The wee things that we take for granted.”
She watches the news from Gaza and Sudan. She sees mothers struggling to keep their children alive.
“That’s why I keep going,” she says. “You have to think about the bigger picture.”
Every shift in the shop. Every bag sorted. Every item sold. It all adds up.
A legacy that moved and endured
As decades have passed, the determination and generosity that built Oxfam in Dundee continue to shine.
When Lorna’s eyesight began to fail, she stepped back from working in the shop. It wasn’t easy. The shop had been her project, her pride.
Today, Barbara carries that legacy forward in a different shop, on a different street, but with the same steady commitment.
When asked what her mum would think, Barbara pauses.
“I think she’d be quite proud. Finally, posthumously at least, my mother would be proud of me.”
We think so too.
Because this story isn’t about bricks and mortar. Nor is it about sorting through a bag of donated books or steaming a second-hand dress ready for the shop floor.
It’s about people who keep showing up.
And in Dundee, that commitment has stretched from one generation to the next, and from one shop to another, building hope that reaches far beyond the city’s streets.
Inspired by Barbara’s story?
If you’d like to volunteer in your local Oxfam shop in Scotland, we’d love to welcome you. As Barbara says, it’s camaraderie, community and a chance to be part of something bigger: “If you’re thinking about volunteering, just do it,” she says. “Go out. Meet people. It gives you purpose to your life, and you know you’re doing good.”
By volunteering, you become part of a community that gives back, just as Barbara has done for decades.
