Queen honours people in East for extraordinary work during Covid

The list was originally due to be published in June but was postponed in order to consider nominations for people playing crucial roles during the first months of the Covid-19 effort.

Below you'll find a selection of the people from our region being recognised for their work during lockdown.

Norfolk

Mr Stuart Dark - MBE

Stuart, age 54, retired to Snettisham in West Norfolk after 30 years as a senior police officer. He was commended many times during his career. Now as a Cabinet Member for West Norfolk Council, he was put in charge of overseeing emergency planning during the pandemic. He's also been recognised for his work in putting together research to commemorate the end of World War 1, engaging the whole community and creating a donation portal online.

Miss Sarah-Jane Mintey - MBE

Sarah, who's 51 and from Norwich, is being recognised for her services to technology and education during Covid-19. She's been described as an inspiring figure for women in technology, developing a successful company which she remains the CEO of. Sarah is an ex-headteacher and used her 20 years of teaching experience to create 'Developing Experts' which offers online STEM education for children and young people. During the pandemic she made resources for free for schools to use so that they could help parents with homeschooling.

Mrs Samantha Gallagher - BEM

Samantha, who's 44 and from King's Lynn, is being recognised for her services to social care during Covid-19. At the beginning of the pandemic a number of residents and staff became very unwell leaving the care home in a crisis situation. In one week Sam tirelessly worked the floor, and even slept at the home, and her dedicated team did the same, so no agency nurses were needed and residents could be cared for by people who knew them best. Her exceptional clinical skills meant she identified that residents were not always presenting typical symptoms, and helped prevent the spread of infection.

She stood up to Covid-19 and fought for her residents, advocating on their behalf every step of the way.

Tragically not every life could be saved and Sam has also been there to support her team through the losses they've endured.

Reverend Matthew Price - BEM

As the Covid-19 crisis unfolded Rev. Price, who's been the curate then vicar of St Magdalene in Gorleston, immediately moved into action to steer the existing Foodbank into forming a new local delivery service. The 42 year-old is being recognised for his services to Gorleston during the pandemic, after approaching Great Yarmouth Borough Council back in March to try and form a partnership. Furloughed council staff helped with deliveries and used their influence and buying power to provide essential food supplies to the system. Over 1,300 people received emergency food and essential supplies during lockdown.

Mr Simon Taylor - BEM

Simon, who's a bus driver for First in Norfolk, is being recognised for his services to the community. When the pandemic hit all the canteens across First Eastern Counties' depots which served hot meals had to close, so he arranged to provide meals for free which could be heated up on company premises for staff.

He enrolled himself in a food and hygiene course at his own expense and then spent his 'rest' days preparing meals to drop off at the depots.

He has since continued to prepare meals on his rest days and has now expanded his menu.

Mrs Julia Hunt - MBE

Julia, who's 58 and is the Director of Nursing at the James Paget Hospital, is being recognised for her services to nursing. She has worked at the hospital in Great Yarmouth for her entire career and has a reputation for doing the right thing for patients.

Julia was due to retire but stayed on for an extra three months to help support the team during Covid.

Julia has been described as having a true passion for developing nursing as a profession and has been instrumental in the development of local career pathway opportunities, including the introduction of a local Health Academy.

Suffolk

Mr Grenville Clarke - BEM

Grenville, who's 73 and from Bury St Edmunds is being recognised for his services to the environment and community in Suffolk. Through his work with the Green Light Trust he has established 62 community woodlands and played a pivotal role in enhancing the natural landscape of Suffolk through his 22-year involvement with the local Wildlife Trust.

Grenville has motor neurone disease, and while this means he isn't able to get out into the environment, his wife Elizabeth told us he's in regular contact with environmental groups and friends to keep in touch with nature.

Earlier this year, Mr Clarke was also the recipient of the Suffolk Medal for his environmental work. Sally said: "These sorts of awards are for people like Grenville who doesn't think they've done any more than a lot of other people. I'm very proud of him, I love him to bits he's amazing, we've been together for 54 years now."

We asked Mrs Clarke if there was a message Grenville would want to share with younger generations, she explained preserving our world is his priority: "Help in some way, whether it's once a week or once a month, do something to protect this amazing world. We've all got to do something for the future generations, or this wonderful planet is not going to be here."

Essex

Ms Sally Shaw - MBE

Sally, who's 44 and from Colchester, is being recognised for her services to the Arts. She has led the adaption of Firstsite's Holiday Fun Programme, which supports families from low socio-economic backgrounds by providing a day of activities for children. The days involve sport and nutritious hot meals, which are all provided for free for people from low-income backgrounds.

Sarah also led the production of a series of artist activity packs which were then made available for families to download for free shortly after lockdown began. The activity packs called 'Art is where the home is' have proved successful during lockdown, having been distributed to 71,000 families around the world.

Sally told us the news of her MBE is still sinking in: "I've had a lot of new junk email in my inbox during lockdown, all sorts of things coming through. I had to read it nine or 10 times before I thought it might be real and this might actually happen. Then, I sent it to my mum and she said 'I think this might be real, Sally', it's brilliant.

"Mostly it's recognition for all the hard work everybody at Firstsite has done during lockdown, it's not just me, there's a huge team of people at Firstsite and we collaborate with a lot of people."

Professor Tim Baker - MBE

Professor Baker, who's 53 and from Chelmsford, is being recognised for his services to healthcare both in the UK and abroad. Back in March a national shortage of breathing aid devices, called CPAPs, was identified by a team of engineers at UCL. It was Professor Baker who led the manufacturing effort, assembling a key team and understood that to help patients with coronavirus they would have a maximum of four weeks to deliver. He focussed on innovating and manufacturing at pace - the first prototype was designed, manufactured and tested on the wards at UCLH within 100 hours.

The final product was delivered to over 100 NHS hospitals within four weeks.

The full design and manufacturing instructions were then released globally for free, with the blueprints downloaded by over 1,800 governments and other organisations from 105 countries.