Community heroes rewarded in Queen's birthday honours

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/12/community-heroes-rewarded-queens-birthday-honours

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A young mother, who captured the spirit of compassion when she began fundraising for a frail, disabled pensioner mugged and robbed outside his Gateshead home, is among the people honoured for work on behalf of their communities.

Katie Cutler, 22, who is awarded the British Empire Medal, hoped to raise £500 for Alan Barnes, 67, but when her appeal went viral and donations rose to more than £300,000, he was able to buy a new home.

Receiving the award was “surreal”, said Cutler. Because of confidentiality over honours, she had yet to tell Barnes “but I think he’ll be over the moon,” she said.

Cutler, has now set up the Katie Cutler Foundation “striving to improve lives through acts of kindness” and to fundraise for other good causes.

It was seeing a friend of his homeless on the streets after leaving the army when he was injured in Basra that led Jimmy Jukes, 59, from Bermondsey, south London, to set up Homes 4 Heroes. The Bermondsey Pearly King receives an MBE for the charity which helps feed and accommodate homeless ex-service personnel.

Those promoting gender equality and female empowerment were well represented in the honours list. Sharmadean Reid, 31, from Wolverhampton, set up WAH, a nail brand and north London salon promoting positive images of women in hip-hop and grime culture, and receives an MBE for services to the beauty industry.

Laura Bates, 28, saw her Everyday Sexism project go global and become a campaigning project. She accepted her BEM “in recognition of the 100,000 who have come forward to share their stories, men and women, from different worlds and different backgrounds”.

Journalist Caroline Criado-Perez, whose successful campaign to keep a woman on a British banknote resulted in a backlash of online abuse, is named an OBE .