From a 103-year-old marathon runner to a 24-year-old entrepreneur who helped launch the career of Ed Sheeran, the New Year honours recognise a range of people across the UK.
Jamal Edwards, 24, was a teenager when he launched the youth broadcasting channel SB.TV to upload clips he recorded of his friends performing on his west London estate. Today SB.TV is a global brand, Edwards has worked with stars including Jesse J, Rita Ora and Professor Green, and he is an ambassador for MTV’s Staying Alive Foundation to fight the spread of HIV.
“One of the main things I try to instil now in my audience is the whole deal about self belief and trying to take their dreams to the next level because everyone says people from certain backgrounds can’t get to certain places,” he said. He said: “I’m overwhelmed. My gran doesn’t know yet. My mum and dad know but that’s it. She [his grandmother] is going to be the most over the moon. I want her to see it before I tell her.”
Hazel Geach, 86, has given 46 years to the scouting movement in Romford, Essex. “And I’ve enjoyed every moment of it,” said the great-grandmother of two, who is awarded an MBE. “To get this award is the top of the tree.” She thought she had reached the top when awarded the Silver Wolf, the highest scouting award. “But then I get the MBE. That is wonderful,” she said.
Rebecca Donnelly, 36, a former world Thai boxing champion, from Bromley, south-east London, is awarded an MBE for services to community sport through her charity Fight 4 Change. Through Thai boxing and martial arts, the charity has worked with 5,000 people aged from eight to 25, of whom one third have gone on to training, education or employment. “I am really pleased to get this award. I think it made my parents’ day when I told them on Christmas Day,” she said.
Pastor Gbolahan Bright, 58, who receives an MBE, is founder of Bright Futurez, through which he provides counselling and mentoring to young people with behavioural problems. “I’m passionate about teaching. I’m doing this because I love doing it. That’s my life, my destiny,” he said. He was inspired when his wife, Sade, a former mayor of Hackney, became involved in politics. “It was an eye opener for me as far as community involvement was concerned,” he said. “I feel great to be honoured by Her Majesty for the job I love doing.”
Gay rights campaigner Jenny Broughton, 80, receives an MBE as a founding member of the charity Fflag (Families and Friends of Lesbian and Gays). She said: “I’m very proud … it is an honour not just for me but for Fflag, for the organisation and the work which parents all over the country have done for 21 years and continue to do.”
Since her daughter came out at 17, Broughton has been involved in campaigning, including against Section 28, which banned the promotion of homosexuality in schools, and for the equalisation of the age of consent, but she believes there is still work to be done. Her focus is now on education and tackling homophobic bullying in schools “to combat discrimination that goes on – some of it not even conscious”.
Fauja Singh, 103, and widely believed to be the oldest marathon runner in the world, is awarded a British Empire Medal. From Essex, and a keen charity supporter and champion for Age UK, he took up running aged 89.
