Trio honoured for their contributions to Shropshire by county's Lord Lieutenant
Three Shropshire people have been honoured for the long-time contributions they have made to the well-being of the county.
Lord Lieutenant Sir Algernon Heber-Percy presented British Empire Medals on behalf of the Queen to a Ludlow man who has raised £37,000 for a number of charities across Shropshire and beyond after taking up tapestry work for charity when ill health limited his many activities.
A woman, also from Ludlow, received the award for her life-long, voluntary political service and a Wellington man has been honoured for his services to music.
Sir Algernon said he was immensely proud to be making the presentations and paid tribute to the contributions made by all the recipients. Jack Andow has been in a wheelchair for 20 years because of multiple sclerosis and a range of other conditions.
He said: "When I had to use the wheelchair, I tried other things like woodwork which didn't work. Then I saw an advertisement for sewing classes and how to do tapestry. I signed up for it and really enjoyed it.
"Now I make tapestry pictures of different aspects of the county and so far have done about 230 which I donate as raffle prizes to many charities, including the Royal Navy veterans."
Pamela Twitchell has worked as a volunteer for Ludlow Conservative Association for more than 30 years – before that she did similar work in Cambridgeshire. She said: "Since moving to Ludlow I have worked briefly with Eric Cockeram, then Christopher Gill and now Philip Dunne as MPs and I've been chairman twice and president once of the association."
Robert (Bob) Wysome received his award for services to music in the county.
He has touched thousands of lives through his skills as musician, teacher, conductor and mentor. He said: "I have also been so very fortunate to have had so many opportunities and support in the county."
Bob now meets the challenges of living with Parkinson's Disease and although after a recent tribute concert. He stepped down from some areas, he still carries on with the music which he says "is my life" as well as he can.
