Author: Steve Hall

The Monastery Manchester

In a ceremony at The Monastery, Manchester, on Tuesday the 21st January 2025, 6 Honour’s Recipients were invested with their British Empire Medals (BEM) by The Lord-Lieutenant. The Vice Lord-Lieutenant and the Mayors of Stockport, Wigan, Rochdale and the Deputy Mayor of Oldham along with the Lord-Lieutenant’s Cadet and Lieutenancy volunteer Ben Hall were also in attendance to help and to congratulate them all. The photographs were kindly taken by the ex Mayor of Trafford, a keen amateur photographer (credit Chris Boyes).

The recipients and their guests from across Greater Manchester listened to the citations which were read out by the Clerk to the Lieutenancy and broke into applause as each of the stories were revealed and each walked forward to receive their medals from the Lord-Lieutenant and their certificate from the Vice Lord-Lieutenant.

A BEM is awarded to people who have contributed a very hands-on service to the community in a local geographical area. Either sustained commitment in support of local charitable or voluntary activity or innovative work that has delivered real impact in a short period (3/4 years).

The recipients and their stories were as follows:

Roman Leslie BODNAREC

Roman is a key volunteer for the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain (AUGB) in his home branch of Manchester, where he held the unpaid posts of Treasurer and then Chair of the Audit Committee. He was Treasurer of the Ukrainian Saturday School and a staunch supporter of all the school’s activities. In 2014 he became AUGB Ltd’s Finance Director and took on the task of modernising and simplifying AUGB’s accounting processes and procedures. This involved not only overhauling the central accounting function but also creating new processes for branches to follow in a way which would not overburden volunteers at branch level.

Roman instigated and implemented various strategic changes which ensured that AUGB’s financial position was secured for many years to come, while remaining compliant with all statutory requirements. His support for branches involved holding seminars, workshops and individual working sessions to ensure full understanding, and this was done, not only in normal working hours, but in many hours of personal and family time in the evenings and weekends.

He has provided significant support to new branches which are largely made up of displaced Ukrainians, who have no experience of accounting and financial processes and procedures, again taking up many hours of his own time.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Roman has ensured compliance and kept the company running from a financial perspective. He is one of the vital unsung, behind the scenes members, who just got on with keeping the Association going and making sure the organisation survived whilst auditing and accounting for the many donations that were coming in, in support for Ukraine.

Despite battling with a long-term chronic illness, Roman is always ready to provide advice and support to those that need it.

Robert David CHEW

Robert has been a Firefighter for over 18 years in the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service. After working in schools promoting safety messages, he developed an innovative way to create a new learning space for teachers, offering Littleborough Fire Station as a place for them to bring pupils to learn. He worked hard to ensure the station’s garden and classroom were safe and productive environments to teach in. As well as informing pupils about the work of the fire service, he taught them lifesaving and safety skills and involved them in the development and creation of the fire station garden.

This has been enormously popular with teachers, who are using it to invigorate the delivery of their curriculum. Pennine in Bloom awarded the station a silver medal, and Robert created an initiative with them to further develop the rear garden. The money won was invested in garden tools and matched with GMFRS funding, which he helped to secure, greatly improving the look of the station and turning it into a vibrant community asset with an open-door policy for the community. The station garden has gone on to win many awards, has improved the wellbeing of local pupils, and taught them the importance of protecting the environment, reinforced with information about responding to wildfires and flooding as a fire service.

Robert has recruited volunteers to run an allotment used by community groups, to help people with mental/physical disabilities. The open-door policy is extended to the food grown there and provides a vital source of free vegetables to the community which has proven extremely popular during the cost-of-living crisis.

Over the past decade, Robert has also run a football team and a drama class for young people and ran over 500 miles in 365 days to raise money for charity.

Robert has selflessly contributed and continues to give to his community.

Marie LYON

Marie is an outstanding patient campaigner. After being given Primodos, a hormone pregnancy test, she gave birth to a daughter in 1970, whose limbs were not all fully formed. For over 40 years she has supported the Association for Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests, the national organisation which she now Chairs.

Marie has campaigned tirelessly, with campaigners in the UK and Germany, regulators, and Members of Parliament. Her campaigning led to Theresa May, as then Prime Minister, ordering a review into the use of Primodos, vaginal mesh implants, and the anti-epilepsy drug sodium valproate. Marie also gave evidence to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Review (IMMDS), led by Baroness Cumberlege. The impact of the evidence led to recommendations to improve the safety of medicines and medical devices. This will include improvements in the way that patients’ views are listened to and acted upon and on the information that is given to patients to consent to treatment.

Marie provides support and information to families and has used her voice to amplify the voices of others, including children with disabilities. She is a very effective communicator, working extensively with the media to highlight the campaign. Her work is entirely voluntary, and she continues to campaign actively for redress for families affected.

Marie is a huge support to patients and families harmed by medicines and medical devices. The generosity that she provides and the amazing work to amplify patient voices, despite the difficulty that she has experienced, is inspirational. Marie did not set out to be a campaigner, but shows that as an individual citizen, through her integrity, selflessness and leadership, she influences the highest levels of power to catalyse change for the better.

BRIAN MADDEN

For 70 years Brian has voluntarily worked to benefit his local community through a variety of means, particularly in connection with his Catholic Faith. He served as governor at Corpus Christi School in Oldham for 32 years, during which time he took on responsibility for the Special Educational Needs and Disability provision at the school, as Governor for Special Needs. He helped redesign the school’s policy and training with the school’s SEND Coordinator and worked closely with senior staff on a range of issues including school policy, documentation, curriculum, staffing issues and the religious life of the school. As a result of his efforts Corpus Christi was ultimately rated Outstanding by Ofsted.

Brian is also a dedicated member of his church community. He has played a major voluntary role in the running of the parish, including arranging visiting priests to give mass in the absence of a regular priest, arranging for delivery of communion to the sick, supervising administrative affairs, finance and social events.

Brian also worked on behalf of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford in several functions. He was instrumental in the construction of the Shrine Chapel of Our Lady of Schoenstatt in Bolton, as project manager, overseeing the construction and served on the Marriage Tribunal for the Diocese for 15 years, with responsibility for adjudicating annulments. He has also been an active member of the Knights of St Columba, an international Roman Catholic charitable society, for 60 years. Brian has been involved in a variety of activities to raise funds for educational causes and to enhance spiritual awareness, including facilitating a series of logistically difficult pilgrimages to Lourdes.

Brian is an exceptional volunteer who is committed to his faith, selflessly working to benefit those around him.

Dr Amrik Singh MAHAL

Amrik was involved in the UK’s response to the pandemic from April 2020, when the University of Cambridge joined forces with AstraZeneca to create the Cambridge Testing Centre to boost the UK’s COVID-19 testing capabilities for frontline workers and the wider population.

Amrik provided the leadership from AstraZeneca to implement the IT infrastructure, applications, and security to enable the full end-to-end science operations from receipt of patient swabs to the data transfer of the results and daily analytics to healthcare professionals and patients. He chaired governance meetings with the Heads of IT for the Lighthouse Lab Network at Milton Keynes, Glasgow and Alderley Park in Cheshire to strengthen and support the UK Coronavirus testing programme and to share best practice and learning across the labs.

Mobilising the test centre from scratch in such a short period of time was a huge ask. The programme tested over 3.25 million samples and produced a range of scientific advancements that continue the fight against COVID-19 and other diseases.

He oversaw the closure of the centre and its transfer to large-scale UK Covid-19 testing laboratories but remained the IT system owner should archived data be required in the future. Had it not been for the role that he had played and his relentless work and focus over the period, the project would not have delivered the robust end to end IT systems and infrastructure to support the testing in such a short space of time which undoubtedly saved lives.

Internally within AstraZeneca he was also involved in ensuring they responded to the pandemic to keep workplaces safe and supply chains operational to ensure continued delivery of medicines to patients globally.

Amrik continues to be an exceptional contributor to the world of science and technology.

Isabel Christine TAYLOR

Five generations of Isabel’s family have served the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and so it is no wonder that she has been fundraising for them since she was just 7 years old. Since relocating to the north-west for work, she has campaigned to connect inland communities to the sea by sharing stories and knowledge from her family’s RNLI history. Highly trusted across the region, Isabel holds multiple volunteer roles for thriving inland branches and her impact has driven a sustained annual income of over £65k.

Isabel is one of a small group who established the City of Manchester Fundraising Branch. In 2021, they brought an Atlantic 85 lifeboat into the city centre to mark the 130th anniversary of the world’s first ever street collection, which took place in Manchester, following the Southport and St Anne’s lifeboat disaster of 1886. Thousands of people flocked to the streets to catch a glimpse of the crew and their lifeboat, raising over £5k.

This is just one of many events which would not have been possible without Isabel’s influence, passion, and commitment. She is also naturally skilled in converting casual conversations into lasting partnerships, such as instigating a collaboration in 2018 with 1,200 UK community groups to raise funds for 5 lifeguard rescue craft.

Committed to her community, she was a keen Girl Guider and a member of a Cornish choir prior to relocating. Her father said about her move ‘our loss is your gain’, and since arriving, her branch chairman has claimed ‘she is a volunteer I wish I could clone.’

Isabel, also known as “Stormy Stan ”, the RNLI Mascot, is an incredible fundraiser and has, without doubt, enabled the RNLI to save many lives.