A COMMUNITY champion who helped her North Yorkshire village get through the Covid pandemic has won recognition in today's Queen's Birthday Jubilee Honours.

Karen Morris has received the BEM for services to the community in Newton on Ouse, particularly during Covid.

An honours spokesperson said Karen, 58, managed volunteers to ensure the vulnerable got their shopping and prescriptions and set up a contact network to inform villagers of all local news and matters of interest.

“She was also instrumental in organising a highly successful, socially distanced, VE Day celebration, with music and singing which lifted the spirits of the whole community,” they said.

“She also organises the annual Remembrance Day event at a memorial cairn in the village and served as a treasurer to the local primary school parent teacher association, and was later elected on to the parish council, where she volunteered her services to become the parish clerk when the vacancy arose.”