Former Dame Alice Harpur School Science teacher, Anne Grant, has this week been awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List for Services to local charity, Carers in Bedfordshire.

The award was made in recognition of Anne’s unwavering commitment to the needs of unpaid carers across Bedfordshire, principally through her work with Carers in Bedfordshire. Anne joined the charity following her retirement, soon after it was founded by Yvonne Clark in 2004 volunteering as a telephone befriender and a trustee. From here, Anne went on to be chair of the charity from 2010 to 2017. She oversaw a period of great change as the organisation evolved into becoming the well-established and respected charity that it is today.

On the news of her honour, Anne said: “During the 13 years I was on the board and the seven years as Chair, I saw Carers in Bedfordshire’s amazing growth into a professionally run organisation which still retains the family feel for staff and carers alike. I feel hugely privileged to have been associated with such a vibrant and much needed organisation alongside caring for my husband.”

Anne herself has been a carer for her husband, Forbes, for 28 years since he suffered a stroke, leaving him tetraplegic without speech. Anne is a role model, not only as a carer but also for her contribution to the local community in Renhold and for the leadership she showed whilst on the Board of Carers in Bedfordshire. Around teaching and bringing up their children Anne and Forbes have tried to lead the life they always intended; they have even managed to travel extensively in a specially adapted camper van.

Anne taught at Dame Alice Harpur School between 1989 and retired in 2004. She taught primarily Chemistry but also some Physics and Biology.

To hear Anne’s interview on Three Counties Radio, approximately 18 minutes in: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07xznxl