Honours given for making a difference

Dec 30 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

The Queen’s New Year’s Honours reward community stalwarts, as Liza Williams and Jessica Shaughnessy report

COMMUNITY stalwarts and tireless campaigners throughout Merseyside and Cheshire are among those recognised in the New Year’s Honours list today.

Education and healthcare professionals, and individuals who have made a difference within the region and beyond have been recognised and will be presented with their awards by the Queen next year.

Lou McGrath, from Oxton, Wirral, (pictured) receives an OBE for his services to mine clearance as co-founder of the charity Mines Advisory Group (MAG).

After serving in the military for many years, Mr McGrath saw how easy it was to safely defuse land mines – which kill and injure thousands in war torn countries every year.

He now travels the world to help train and guide people about the clearance of mines.

The charity, formed in 1989, now has nearly 2,800 people working on projects, most in the war zones themselves.

He said: “It was my brother who first alerted me to the issue and we founded the charity together.

“I am thrilled to receive the award because it raises our profile and therefore will enable us to carry out more of our work, which saves lives and helps rebuild futures.

“We operate in many countries throughout the world including Cambodia, Iraq and Lebanon and often get called to areas which need emergency help.”

The group’s international campaign to clear mines was the co-laureate of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.

Sister Brigid Halligan, (pictured) head at Liverpool’s Bellerive FCJ Catholic College in Sefton Park was also awarded an OBE.

Sister Brigid who has enjoyed a 38-year teaching career, joined Bellerive Grammar School in 1979 as an assistant maths teacher.

She said: “Personally I’m very humbled to have been nominated. I believe the greatest gift you can give young people is a sense of worth and dignity. A long education career makes you realise how little you know and how you cannot achieve anything without the support of others.”

Prof Michael Brown (pictured), vice-chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University, was awarded an OBE for services to higher education and the community.

Almost 20 years after receiving the MBE, Liverpool Eldonians co-founder Tony McGann was awarded the OBE for services to the community in Vauxhall and Kirkdale. He was one of a group of residents of the Eldon Street area who came together to create a new housing estate following the closure of the Tate and Lyle sugar refinery in 1980.

Their hugely successful regeneration programme continues to this day and has won praise from Prince Charles and Gordon Brown.

Mr McGann, who still does not know who nominated him for his MBE in 1989, said: “Last time, I dedicated the honour to the wonderful people who stood up for what they wanted – to be kept together as a community – and the courage they showed.

“This time, I want to dedicate it to my family and close friends for the way they have stood by me shoulder to shoulder for the past few years, during all the ups and downs.”

An MBE has been given to Frank Hont, regional secretary of Unison, for his services to community relations.

He was involved in the work the Government’s Integration and Cohesion Commission has carried out to ease tensions in Britain.

Mr Hont said: “I feel I have received this award on behalf of Unison and the work we all did to help integrate communities in the region.

“I do not see myself as the only person responsible, this MBE is in recognition of the collective work we did.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Currie, head of Merseyside Police’s Force Crime Operations Unit, said he was “honoured and flattered” by the award of a Queen's Police Medal.

He has served with Merseyside Police since 1978, spending most of his career with CID, working on investigations including the murders of Anthony Walker; Wallasey mother and daughter Susan and Ellen Palin and the 1994 murder of Sarah Rigby, which highlighted the need for the Sex Offenders’ Register.

Services to healthcare in the region was marked by an MBE to Charles Flynn,  (pictured), former deputy chief executive of Mersey Care.

Mr Flynn, 54, ended more than 30 years working for the health service when he took early retirement from the trust, which runs mental health treatment for people in Liverpool, Sefton and Kirkby, in April.

The former nurse, who lives in Birkdale, said the five years he spent in charge of Ashworth hospital, in Maghull, were a career highlight.

He said: “I was recruited to make changes at Ashworth, to make sure we only had people in the secure hospital who needed to be there. It was a privilege working with staff at Ashworth, who do a tremendous job.”

Anita Marsland, chief executive of Knowsley PCT, also receives an MBE, while there is an OBE for Steve Maddox, chief executive of Wirral Council, pictured here when Wirral hosted the Open Golf in 2006.