 Julia Ogilvy appeared to have it all. A high- flying businesswoman and an award-winning entrepreneur, she’s related to royalty by marriage – the Queen and Princess of Wales attended her wedding. But Julia found balancing the demands of her prestigious job and young family increasingly difficult. When tragedy touched her life, she began to question what really matters in life.
Julia’s turning point pivoted on two linked events; the terminal illness of her close friends’ two young children and a pilgrimage she made to Medjugorje in Bosnia.
Julia had known the youngsters since birth and felt part of their ‘extended family’. She had to rethink her life and her attitude to her Christian faith.
'Although I grew up in the Protestant tradition, I had had little to do with religion for some time,’ she admits. On the pilgrimage Julia met men and women of faith who were, she says ‘glowing, serene and joyful, suffused with a feeling I longed to have’.
Julia returned home to Scotland believing she had been given ‘a second chance to do something that would honour the children’s lives’.
She married her talents with the needs she saw around her by setting up a charity, Project Scotland (www.projectscotland.co.uk) a revolutionary volunteering organisation that helps young Scots achieve their potential.
‘We market volunteering across Scotland,’ Julia says. ‘We have over 300 partner organisation who offer different opportunities to the young volunteers.’ Since its start-up, over 3500 young people (aged 16-25) have been helped find placements in a wide range of areas such as the environment, education, youth projects, sports and the arts.
Before her turning point, Julia describes her experience of faith as ‘formal and staid’. A boarding school education and family attendance at church left her unmoved.
‘I don’t remember getting much from it. The jump comes when you start having conversations with God. It’s that next step not just going through the motions. It’s praying and actually believing that your prayers are worthwhile.
‘Eventually I did an Alpha course* which I wished I’d done sooner. That was the next step. That freed me up to be more involved.’ Julia is an active member of her local Church of Scotland in which she’s an Elder.
Julia’s original Alpha group still meets together after six years for study, prayer and friendship. ‘They are so supportive and we have built up such trust. That’s been incredibly important,’ says Julia.  (*Alpha is an introduction to the Christian faith – www.alpha.org)
Did she miss the buzz of her former lifestyle?
‘When I stopped, there was such a sense of relief that I was becoming the person I’d rather be, instead of this high- powered person that was always rushing.’
‘For me, the buzz was infinitely replaced by the challenge of developing Project Scotland. It’s hard to tell the difference between my working life and my non-working life. I mentor young people. I spend quite a lot of time with them in coffee shops!’
Has the way she relates to her own children changed?
‘Yes it has. They get very involved in what we do. We want our children to realise how lucky they are with all that they have.’ Through the work of Project Scotland, many more young people will have opportunities to make the most of their lives too.
Turning points
Julia has brought together the stories of ten very different individuals in her book Turning Points: Stories to change your life. Some names you’ll recognise like Gordon Brown and Bob Geldof. Some have survived a traumatic experience; others have responded to the injustice they have seen in the world. For some, faith plays a central part in their life. The proceeds from the book will help fund Project Scotland.
How did you select your interviewees?
‘It was part of the journey I was going on anyway. It began with Gordon Brown because I know his wife Sarah. She said Gordon might speak to me about the loss of Jennifer, their daughter. I grabbed that opportunity. Then he introduced me to Bob Geldof.’
Other stories feature death row lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, John Wood, a former top Microsoft executive who set up an education charity in the developing world, and Chris Moon, who survived kidnap by the Khmer Rouge and the amputation of an arm and a leg.
Sean Corrigan, a former drug addict, sums up his turning point when he began his new life and a relationship with God. ‘…it was a joy that I looked for in alcohol… in drugs and… in material things that I just never found… I realized that not only did God love me, but my wife loved me, and I needed to start to like myself and the start to love other people around me.’
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