The boss of a North East theatre company has shared her memories of meeting the Queen to receive her MBE - and recalling how she had felt like hugging her.
Catrina McHugh, writer, director and co-founder of Newcastle -based women's theatre company Open Clasp, gave a heartfelt personal tribute to the late monarch who had presented the medal to her at Buckingham Palace.
On that day, in 2017, when she received the MBE in recognition of her outstanding contribution to disadvantaged women through theatre, she had not initially known which royal would be making the presentation. When, to her delight, she found out it was to be the Queen and was then waiting for her turn to approach the monarch, she remembers feeling utterly overcome by the occasion - until she felt the calming influence of the Queen herself.
