Star comment: Meet real champions of honours
Philippa Griffith and Cy Jones might not feature in many headlines this morning as the nation's biggest celebrities are rewarded in the New Year's honours list. The media will focus on the biggest names and most spectacular stars as honours are conferred.
Yet the system is at its best when it recognises the selfless work of those who give their best to help others.
Honours are awarded for exceptional achievement and service and while it is natural that those in the public eye should receive them, it is all the more important that those whose deeds often go unseen should also be rewarded.
The selection committee that produces the New Year's honours list has a difficult job. Sifting through nominations from Government departments and members of the public only serves to show how much people contribute to the national good. Whittling down the list of nominees to agree upon the 300 recipients is no easy task.
Here in Shropshire, there are many who have made the list. While such OBE recipients as Catherine Sabin, president of the Lawn Tennis Association, and Jane Tomkinson, chief executive of Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, are high profile, others are not.
And it is when candidates who eschew the limelight are thanked that the system makes the biggest difference. Locally, such candidates include Philippa Griffith, who was rewarded for voluntary and public service to the community in Shrewsbury and Shropshire.
Susan Mary Broughton, of Apley, Telford, was honoured for services to children with special educational needs; Helen Mary Francis, of Oswestry, was decorated for charitable services in Trefonen, Shropshire, while Cy Jones, of Ludlow, Robert Godfrey Pither, of Shrewsbury, Freda Alice Ridgway, of Whitchurch, and Graham Riley, of Telford, all received community awards.
Those people are the backbone of our county. They take on the jobs that others avoid. They ensure that things get done in an age when people might otherwise not bother.
When David Cameron was first elected, his great idea was The Big Society. He wanted more people to take responsibility for the improvement and betterment of their communities. The people in Shropshire who have been decorated embrace that ideal, not for self-glorification or because of ego but because they seek to help others.
