Archive - Thursday, 6 January 2005


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Women named in honours' list

A TIRELESS campaigner for community health care has been awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours List.

Joan Hughes, aged 80, has been honoured for her services to health and the community in the Shipston area.

Mrs Hughes was one of the founder members of Shipston League of Friends, which supports hospital facilities in the town.

She was also a founder member of the South Warwickshire Community Health Council, a body that acted as the voice of the patient in the NHS.

On top of these commitments the Ilmington resident was also a member of the South Warwickshire Health Authority for ten years and a magistrate in Stratford for 23.

Penny Whitesmith, modern matron at the Ellen Badger Hospital, said that everyone was delighted that Mrs Hughes had been awarded the MBE. "Nobody deserves it more. She has done so much for the hospital. She has always been very committed and very hardworking."

Brian Schofield, who took over from Mrs Hughes as chairman of the league of friends last year, described her as "a tireless worker."

He said: "She is greatly admired by all of us - she turned 80 last year and is still going strong.

"She carries people along with her and is a great leader - she always sets very high standards for herself."

Mrs Hughes said the satisfaction of volunteering for local health services had been a reward in itself.

"Like any lay person involved in the NHS I have enjoyed it and appreciated the people who work in it. It is also greatly interesting."

Other Cotswold people included in the honours list include Rosemary Roberts of Chipping Norton, who received an MBE for services to scholarship in recognition of her work on the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Elsie Sollis was given an MBE for services to the community in Kingham.