From the oldest, aged 104, to the youngest, 11-year-old twins, the majority of honours are awarded to ordinary individuals who have undertaken extraordinary acts for their communities.
Dance teacher Angela Redgrave, 104, of the Bristol School for Dancing, who taught for 70 years, receives a BEM. Twins Elena and Ruben Evans-Guillen, from Warrington, Cheshire, are the youngest ever recipients and receive BEMs after raising £50,000 for the NHS over the past three years.
Their father, Mark Evans-Guillen, 47, an office worker, said the family was “thrilled”. Elena said it was “unreal”, while Ruben said he was “really surprised”. “It’s been really hard not to tell my friends,” said Elena. The family first became involved with fundraising as a focus for the children when they were six, as both have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Dr Raghib Ali, 46, a consultant in acute medicine at Oxford University Hospitals, was made an OBE after taking leave from his job as a research epidemiologist at Cambridge University to volunteer unpaid during the pandemic.
He returned to the frontline during all four episodes of coronavirus, as well as advising the government on ethnicity and Covid-19.
He said he had experienced a “tough situation” growing up in the 1980s, because his father lost his job and eyesight. He relied on free school meals but worked hard and eventually attended Cambridge University. He hoped his honour would “encourage children, young people today growing up, that whatever their circumstances, it is possible to achieve at the highest level”.
Alexis Bowater, 52, a former TV newsreader in Devon, hoped her OBE, for activism and for services to the safety and equality of women, would help highlight the issue. A victim of stalking, she successfully campaigned to introduce stalking protection orders.
She said: “I think it’s really important to understand that violence against women and girls is the new pandemic. This is not a criminal justice issue. It’s a public health issue. It’s an issue for all of us.”
She is also recognised for her work to erect a statue of Nancy Astor in Plymouth on the centenary of her election as the first female MP to take her seat in parliament.
Patricia Anne Husselbee, 80, from Newport, south Wales, receives a BEM for her 64 years of service as a volunteer for the Royal British Legion poppy appeal. She said: “It’s a worthy cause – it needs to be there.” She was in “shock” when she heard she was being recognised. But, she said, she did not “do it for medals. I do it because it’s needed.”
Alex Griffiths, a 22-year-old carer from from Brierley Hill, West Midlands, was also shocked at his BEM. Having cared for his mother, who has multiple sclerosis, since he was five, he now also cares for his grandparents.
Describing a normal day, the trainee nurse said: “It was: down their [his grandparents’] house early morning, then go to college, then back down theirs, then back down at night again. And do it again every day of the week. So you get very good at juggling things.”
He said of his honour: “I still don’t believe it. Somebody is going to come through a door in a minute and say: ‘Ha, got you.’ Not being able to tell people is the worst , because it almost makes it: ‘Has this actually happened?’ I am still in complete shock.”
