On the 24th of January 2023 our Chair and Founder of OWLS Claire went to Windsor Castle to collect her MBE Honour from Prince Willam. Claire first received the letter for her MBE in May 2022 from the Cabinet office. When the letter came through the letter box and Claire seen that it was from the Cabinet Office her first thought was “ What have I done wrong”.
A few weeks later the cabinet office rang to see if she would be accepting the award, Claire told her that she was struggling with accepting it as she did not feel worthy of such an award. The lady read out the nomination and afterwards the lady told Claire that she did deserve it and that she has done amazing things.
Claire received this award for her services to domestic abuse in Stockport.
Then in September after the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Claire received a call from the Cabinet Office inviting her to the state funeral, one of only 200 invites to people with honours and so on Monday September 19th Claire attended Westminster Abbey and the state funeral
Claire still to this day is amazed with all the amazing feedback, and the honour of being able to do these once in a lifetime achievements. Claire said she is extremely grateful for her family, friends, volunteers, service users and all the outside agencies because none of this could have happened without them.
Claire does not get paid for the work she does with OWLS; she does everything out of her passion for helping others and to make sure, nobody has to go through it alone