Olivia Giles was honoured by the University at its graduation ceremony on Thursday 22 November 2007.

Giles, a quadruple amputee, who has played a hugely important contribution to raising awareness of meningitis, received an Honorary Doctorate from the University at its graduation ceremony at Coats Memorial Baptist Church, Paisley.

Olivia Giles, who was born in the west of Scotland in 1965, is a qualified lawyer. Between 1987-89 she undertook her training in legal practice with Morton, Fraser & Milligan. She then moved to Maclay, Murray & Spens and became an Associate in 1993 and a partner in 1996.

In February 2002 she contracted meningococcal septicaemia (meningitis). During her illness she went into a medical coma and suffered from toxic shock and gangrene. The gangrene led to amputation of her arms and legs. Her surgeon, in a series of five long operations grafted skin and saved her joints and saved her life. She spent a year both in a specialist plastics unit and in rehabilitation, which involved physiotherapy, occupational therapy and a person-centred approach in a wider interdisciplinary integrated rehabilitation. She was fitted with prosthetic legs and learned to walk again.  

Since her illness, Olivia Giles has contributed to Scottish Executive policy development in relation to rehabilitation. She delivered the foreword to Delivering Care, Enabling Health and chaired the steering group for the Rehabilitation Framework policy. She is now a trained mediator to help the NHS deal with complaints and failure in patient care at an early stage rather than in a protracted legal adversarial model.

In addition to undertaking fundraising in Scotland and the UK for meningitis charities, Olivia Giles has also set up a charity with Jamie Andrew, also a quadruple amputee, to support and rehabilitate amputees in deprived areas of the world.

Principal Professor Seamus McDaid, said: “We were delighted to award Olivia Giles with an Honorary Doctorate.  Olivia has shown great personal courage in adversity which is an inspiration to us all. In addition to raising awareness of meningitis and the support required for amputees, Olivia plays a key role at the national level in developing health and social care policy. She is a fitting recipient of this award.”