Mary is Meadow Well's first lady
Dec 31 2004 By Hilary Clixby, The Journal
Grass-roots pioneer
A charity pioneer who helped raise millions of pounds for community projects across the North has been awarded an OBE.
George Hepburn, 55, was appointed director of the Northumberland and Tyne and Wear Community Foundation in 1989. It broke the mould in UK charity work by adopting a US model - encouraging large donations from firms and awarding grants to community organisations.
Last year it awarded £7m to projects across Tyne and Wear and Northumberland.
Father-of-one George, who lives with wife Jan, in High Mickley, Northumberland, said the success was due to the staff and the people in the North-East - the most generous in the UK.
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Long career spent making childbirth safer
A professor who has dedicated his life to making childbirth safer has been awarded a CBE.
Bill Dunlop, 60, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Newcastle University, said he was delighted with the award.
The father-of-two, said: "I accept this on behalf of my friends and colleagues at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists."
Prof Dunlop, who lives with his wife Sylvia, in Jesmond, Newcastle, is a past president of the college and was responsible for reorganising its postgraduate education.
He has also played a significant role in the development of the recently-published National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services.
He said: "The honour provides recognition of a period of harmony during which many people within the college and in closely-related disciplines made enormous efforts for the benefit of women and their babies."
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MBE for head of pioneering Groundwork trust
Head of the pioneering Groundwork South Tyneside, Lionel Hehir, has been awarded the MBE for his services to the environment.
Mr Hehir, 56, has been executive director of the trust since 1991, working closely with local communities and organisations, including South Tyneside Borough Council, to improve the area.
He was also instrumental in the construction of the award-winning Eco-centre at Hebburn which has won international recognition for its use of sun, wind and water systems and its construction from largely re-cycled materials. Scots-born Mr Hehir is married to Lesley and has two children, both grown-up. He says he is both "very proud and extremely surprised" to receive his MBE. It is a great honour. I am passionate about the environment and the award is very nice of course, but the truth is hundreds and hundreds of people have helped me and I think they deserve recognition as much as I do."
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Thrilled at MBE award
A teaching assistant who left a job as a dinner lady to work in the classroom has been rewarded with an MBE.
Edna Glenton (pictured above), 60, joined Kingston Park Primary School, in Newcastle, 15 years ago as a teaching auxiliary.
Now the grandmother, who assists teaching five to seven-year-olds, has been recognised in the New Year's Honours.
Edna, who lives in Cromwell Road, Whickham, with husband Brian, 69, said she was "shocked rigid" to learn of the award.
"I was thrilled to think that someone, wherever, had thought I was able and deserving enough to receive it," she said. After joining Kingston Park Primary when it opened in 1989, Edna has carried out a number of "odd jobs" in the classroom.
The mother of three grown-up children, Caroline, 40, Ian, 36, and Elizabeth, 26, also acts as a registered first-aider.
She said: "I'm a bit of a royalist and believe in the Queen, so I wouldn't dream of turning an award like this down.
"I think it's wonderful that someone like me can be given this kind of award for working at a job in their community."
Edna added: "I just can't believe that it's happened. I think it's more down to the staff and the children than the work I have done."
The Journal: Today's Voice of the North
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