Charities and mental health advocates, including a train station assistant who stopped 29 people from taking their own lives and the father of Molly Russell, were among those recognised in the king’s new year honours list.
The list also included Tony Hudgell, believed to be the youngest person ever to feature in the new year honours. The nine-year-old was given the British Empire Medal for services to the prevention of child abuse.
Rizwan Javed, 33, a station assistant on the Elizabeth line, part of London’s tube network, has played a role in stopping a total of 29 people who were at risk of taking their own lives while he was working.
Javed was awarded an MBE for his services to vulnerable people.
He said there are some telltale signs to identify those at risk. “If someone is isolated on the platform, if they’re missing trains and potentially waiting for a nonstop service or if they start to remove their clothing,” he said.
He said the first step is to start an open conversation. “I tend to break the ice by talking about the weather or their clothing. After that it’s about listening and responding,” he said.
One of the people who Javed helped to save was a young woman who was the same age as him. Her father had taken his life at the same station.
“I saw her begin to remove her clothes and inch closer to the platform. I ran over and started a conversation and found out why she was there,” he said. Her family and the emergency services were called.
“A few weeks later she ran over and gave me a hug and said, ‘If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t be here,’” he said.
Javed said mental health in the Asian community “is not spoken about often enough”.
“Having that respect barrier with your parents or loved ones at home, you’re not able to speak about certain topics,” he said.
“We need to break that barrier, youngsters should be able to go to their mother and father and talk about their struggles. It will make a massive impact.”
He added: “Words won’t ever describe the feeling and honour of being presented an MBE.”
For some of those being honoured, motivation came from personal loss. Ian Russell, 60, set up the Molly Rose Foundation after the death of his daughter, Molly Russell, in 2017.
An inquest found that the 14-year-old had taken her own life while suffering from depression and “the negative effects of online content”.
“Molly was one of the most caring people I’d ever met,” he said. The foundation works in suicide prevention for young people, with a particular focus on online safety.
He said he has been on a journey since Molly’s death. “I’ve learned so much about how young people can be affected in many ways, including by what they see online,” he said.
Russell said his daughter would have been “very proud” of her legacy of suicide prevention as he was made an MBE.
Camilla “CJ” Bowry, 43, the founder of a charity that gives donated secondhand shoes to children in need, said it has seen a “huge surge in demand” amid the cost of living crisis, as she was made an OBE.
Bowry runs Sal’s Shoes, which redistributes footwear to children all over the world whose parents cannot afford it. She has been honoured for services to young people, education and the environment.
Over the past decade, the charity says it has “found new feet for over 5 million pairs of Sal’s Shoes in 61 countries around the world, including increasingly here in the UK”.
Bowry, of Oxted, Surrey, said of her award: “I think as someone working in the charity sector any acknowledgment is quite uncomfortable when really all we’re able to achieve is down to the less fortunate position of others. That said, I think it validates our work and is one for the whole team.”
Mubarak Mahmed, 39, is a former bus driver who heads a network of mental health first aiders for the bus company First Bus. He said bus drivers face particular challenges to their mental health.
“Sometimes it can be socially isolating. You’re working on your own, the interaction with passengers may not be as much as you’d like. You don’t see your family enough and you might have poor physical health,” he said.
Mahmed said he was “really honoured to be awarded with the British Empire Medal”.
Meanwhile Tony Hudgell’s family said they were thrilled by the nine-year-old becoming the youngest person ever to feature in the new year honours.
Tony, from Kent, who has raised more than £1.8m for charity after starting when he was aged just five, is the co-founder of the Tony Hudgell Foundation and also inspired “Tony’s Law”, which updated guidelines to allow tougher sentencing for people convicted of child cruelty.
Tony was 41 days old when he was assaulted by his birth parents, an attack which caused multiple fractures, dislocations and blunt trauma to the face, leading to organ failure, toxic shock and sepsis.
He was left untreated and in agony for 10 days, and due to the extent of his injuries both his legs had to be amputated.
Jody Simpson, 29, and her partner, Anthony Smith, were jailed for 10 years in 2018.
Paula and Mark Hudgell adopted Tony when he was aged 17 months in 2016, and the British Empire Medal comes a year after Paula was made an OBE.
The government believes Tony is the youngest-ever honours recipient, although it does not hold all the historical data to be able to confirm it.
“Tony, Paula, Mark and the Hudgell family are thrilled by the news today of Tony being the youngest person ever to be honoured on the new year honours list and recognised this weekend,” a family spokesperson told the PA news agency.
More than 1,200 people were given honours in this year’s list, many of them for their work in communities across the UK.
The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said: “The new year’s honours list recognises the exceptional achievements of people across the country and those who have shown the highest commitment to selflessness and compassion.
“To all honourees, you are the pride of this country and an inspiration to us all.”
