Voluntary group in royal award honour

HONOUR: Marjorie Gratton and Bill Barlow at Buckingham Palace to receive the Queen’s Award on behalf of Oldham Bereavement Support Service

Oldham’s bereavement support group has won a Queen’s Award for voluntary service.

Chairman Bill Barlow and vice-chairman Marjorie Gratton attended a Queen’s garden party to collect the award on behalf of the service, whose trained volunteers offer one-to-one support to the bereaved..

Marjorie said: “It was a fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime event and we were really proud the Queen chose our charity to receive an award. The Queen was just a few yards away from us. It was an amazing experience.

“We work with adults and children and we’re hoping this will raise our profile and help us recruit more volunteers. This award is the highest you can get and will really make a difference to the service. We’ve been going for 25 years but some people still haven’t heard of us.”

Oldham Bereavement Support Service was one of 13 groups in Greater Manchester chosen for the accolade this year - one of more than than 300 groups nominated nationwide.