Cllr Claire Leitch: Getting to Know You

What were you like at school? 

I think it wouldn’t come as a shock to my teachers that I was diagnosed with ADHD. I was never hyperactive or disruptive, but I did spend a large portion of my time asking myself the same questions – ‘Why am I like this? Why does everything seem so easy for everybody, and I need to try five times harder?’  

I couldn’t understand how people could stay so focused on things that I know they’re not interested in. It would take other people five minutes to get between classes, but I don’t have any concept of time. I was always losing my jotters and getting into trouble, and I couldn’t understand how people could keep things in the same place.  

Away from that, I was a really friendly person at school, a bit of a goth, and fiercely into social justice. I wanted everyone in school to be respected and to feel like they had a place. 

When were you diagnosed with ADHD? 

I was young, but at the time it was something you were told you would grow out of. The knowledge of it back then isn’t what it is now. 

So later when I was older, I went back to the GP and told them I couldn’t get organised, I felt like I was chasing my tail all the time – I was so motivated to do things, and I found I couldn’t stop. My GP told me that it was probably ADHD. I told her I grew out of it. That’s when she told me it’s a brain condition and not something you can grow out of.  

I was thinking, no, that’s not me, my brother was diagnosed with ADHD, and he was very hyperactive. It was a good few years ago, she sent me for a re-diagnosis, and I was told I had it.  
That’s when the conversation started, and I began thinking about how we have failed so many people with this brain condition for so long, and how we haven’t recognised the symptoms. I think now it’s about learning, taking that into the future, and opening the conversation with no stigma attached to it.   

When I talk to people now, I tell them I may jump back and forward, it’s because I’ve got ADHD. I’ve even got a tattoo which says ‘ADHD AF’, which my mum still thinks means ‘always, forever’.  

Who’s your dream dinner date? 

Kurt Cobain. What I love about him is that he was so outspoken about inclusivity and being actively anti-racist and anti-sexist, championing gay rights and doing so unashamedly. I love how he was so willing to put himself out like that and champion people who otherwise wouldn’t have been championed. And also, he’s a terrible singer like me.   

What’s your greatest fear? 

Losing touch with who I am. I don’t want to forget my roots and where I come from. I always want to follow my own values and moral code, and I never want to lose that, no matter how exciting the world is.  

Another fear is my daughter growing up and being unhappy. Those two are my big worries.  

What’s the worst thing that anyone’s ever said to you? 

It was in 2018 when I was deputy provost and I made a speech to the Scottish Youth Parliament. It was about adverse childhood experiences and the engagement with the young folk was brilliant.  

I came back to my office and someone who was at the event, who I won’t name, told me it was great, they loved the way I was able to interact with the young people. But they said, ‘however, people might take you a bit more seriously if you wore a trouser suit’ and then he proceeded to tell me that I needed elocution lessons because saying words like ‘yin’ and ‘ken’ was out of touch with what I was doing in my role.  

I categorically disagree with that, it would be coming across as false, it’s not me. That’s why I love my job – I can be who I am. I’m a 33-year-old from Auchinleck, an old mining village. And anyway, I’m 6’1, I couldn’t find a trouser suit to fit me if I tried. 

What’s your most treasured possession? 

My gran passed away when I was 13. She was a wonderful lady, one of those people who did every job. Little to my knowledge, she had knitted blankets for me and my brother’s children, should we have them. When my daughter was born my mum and dad gave me the blanket. It’s so intricately put together, and whilst my daughter doesn’t use the blanket so much, I would be incredibly gutted if I were to see that blanket missing. And it probably means a bit more to me than I thought because of the forward-thinking she had.   

If you could go back in time, where would you go? 

It would be around the time of the suffragette movement – the sheer inequality that was going on at the time, the courage to address that, and the people who came together to fight for what was right.  I would have loved to be a part of the conversations that happened behind closed doors.  

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever had? 

When I was elected in 2017 I was 26, and I was asked if I would be deputy provost. And I said no because my perception of it wasn’t a young lassie from a former mining village who is neurodivergent. It was of someone who has their stuff together, a bit older, more experienced.  

But Jim Todd, the provost at the time, who is one of the most remarkable people I have ever met, told me just before one of the first times I went out with the Chain of Office that I didn’t need to be anybody else other than myself. I didn’t need to put my hair up in a bun or change my image. He said the best thing to do is be myself, not to do things like cover up my tattoos.  

What’s the worst pain you’ve ever experienced? 

My friend Ashley died in her early 30s of breast cancer. She was so full of life and she was a mum to a young girl, a similar age to mine. When she passed away, there was just so much loss. I don’t know how to eloquently explain the feeling of suffering the loss of someone so young with a family, there’s no justice in it. 

It was the worst pain I’ve felt because everyone was hurting so much, it was just so wrong for something like that to happen to such a genuinely lovely person.   

What was your best holiday ever? 

My husband took me to Rome last year. It was during a time when there were quite difficult things happening. He proposed to me outside of the Baths of Caracalla. 

We sat down outside there, and I was pointing away at some amazing thing that had been restored, I turned back around and there he was with a ring, and I was like ‘whit ye daeing?’ I love him so much and coming back home was really lovely.  

We both love Rome – he loves it because of the history, and I love it because they have a cat sanctuary.