List of Brummies who have been awarded an MBE this year

Roy Christopher Lewis – 53 years old
For services to Financial Inclusion

• He leads HSBC’s work on supporting customers with dementia and is responsible for HSBC’s partnership with Alzheimer’s Society.
• His approach is unique; not only have HSBC rolled out Dementia Friends training across the branch staff but across the entire organisation which has resulted in end-to-end policy development for vulnerable customers for the first time.
• He spearheaded HSBC Midlands Region’s partnership with Newlife Foundation.
• Two hundred HSBC branches across the Midlands organised a series of fundraising events throughout the year 2016, raising money to fund specialist equipment for disabled and terminally ill children.
• He was diagnosed with a form of dementia called Lewy Body disease in June 2018, which was unknown to him when he started his work on supporting customers with dementia. During the early part of this year he agreed for the Alzheimer’s Society to film him at home and at work to create a video for the Dementia Friends site, to dispel the misunderstandings of dementia.

Mindu Margaret Hornick, PhD – 90 years old
Holocaust Survivor. For services to Holocaust Education and Commemoration

• She has spoken extensively about her experiences at Auschwitz-Birkenau and making ammunition at the Muna Lubberstedt factory slave labour camp near Hamburg, and surviving the Holocaust as a teenager.
• She has dedicated a huge amount of her time to travelling across the UK voluntarily to share her story.
• In 2018, she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Worcester in recognition of the remarkable impact she has had.
• She has a remarkable attitude and energy and is one of the only survivors based in the West Midlands, so organises to travel across the region, accepting requests to speak.
• Mindu is determined to make the world a better place, and so shares her story at great emotional cost to herself, to help people understand where prejudice and discrimination can lead.
• All of her work is voluntary, and she works with various charities including the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, the Holocaust Education Trust, and the Anne Frank Trust.

Melrose Fraser (Melrose Stewart) – 65 years old
Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of Birmingham and lately Vice President, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. For services to Physiotherapy

• Arriving in the UK aged eleven she overcame challenges, racial prejudice and discrimination to achieve a place at Bristol School of Physiotherapy.
• From qualifying as a Chartered Physiotherapist to the present day, she has advocated tirelessly and passionately promoting health, equality and diversity.
• In 2017 she became well known to the public for her expert physiotherapy role in the highly successful and innovative Channel 4 television programme ‘Old People’s Home for 4-year olds’. This heart-warming hit documentary series demonstrated how intergenerational care could improve social isolation and poor physical and mental health amongst older adults. Both series were nominated for a BAFTA and received many awards for its innovative format including Grierson for Best Factual British documentary award.
• Throughout her career, she has consistently promoted diversity issues. In 1994 she was instrumental in setting up a network group within the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) for BAME members to raise awareness of discrimination and educate physiotherapists on the problems faced within the profession, workplace and society by their BAME colleagues.
• She has led the development of a network that supports overseas-trained physiotherapists in the sometimes-difficult process of assimilation into the NHS.
• Nearly 30 years as a lecturer, she has contributed to training more than two thousand physiotherapy students with their clinical education and, as Senior Tutor, their wellbeing uppermost in her mind.
• She supports the development of physiotherapists as an external examiner at Glasgow Caledonian University and until recently, the University of the West Indies, as a TEDx presenter and a sought-after conference speaker on topics including intergenerational activities, disability, culture, healthy lifestyles and behaviour.
• She served two terms as elected Vice President of the CSP.

Paulette Veronica Bolton – 68 years old
Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Enki Medical Practice, Birmingham. For services to Patient Care

• She is a pioneer of patient care and public service in Birmingham with a 49 year career. She is a role-model to countless health professionals, young people and community members.
• She left school at 9 to care for her dying grandmother, and immigrated from Jamaica in 1966 at 15 years old, teaching herself to read and write.
• She entered nursing in 1969, raising two children alone, and gaining three degrees while working and undertaking voluntary work.
• She set up the Ladywood Nursing Forum, which was attended by more than 200 people.
• She was one of the first, qualified Nurse Practitioners and Nurse Prescribers in Birmingham.
• She grew Enki Medical Practice from 200 patients to more than 5000.
• In 2001 she campaigned for improved treatment of drug addicts, homeless people and those with mental health issues.
• She developed an innovative primary care alternative service for socially excluded ‘zero tolerant’ patients, with more than 1,000 people benefiting – patients who can be aggressive and find it difficult to find the right doctor.
• In 2004, she innovated the first triage system in a GP practice ‘ replicated in practices across Birmingham.
• She has improved processes throughout her career, from raising standards in acute elderly care to setting up Mother/Baby Clinics for vulnerable families.
• She has mentored hundreds of health visitors and nurses.
• She volunteered as a Child Protection Team Leader, and led an inter-agency pilot developing many Child Protection Teams. She has selflessly supported thousands of vulnerable people for decades.

Yvonne Ann Millard – 51 years old
Deputy Chief Nurse, Paediatrics, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. For services to Paediatric Nursing

• She has been a specialist nurse at Birmingham Children’s Hospital for 23 years and is much-respected by peers and families alike.
• After qualifying as a nurse in 1989, her knowledge and drive has seen her hold a number of roles to become Deputy Chief Nurse for Surgery in 2018 at BCH.
• She is a true champion of her much-loved profession and is a strong advocate of nursing.
• She is uncompromising when it comes to standards and challenges poor care at all levels to get the best outcomes for patients and families.
• She was integral in making improvements that led to the Children’s Hospital being the first of its kind to be rated ‘Outstanding’ by the CQC in 2017.
• She’s a recognised innovator, for instance adopting a nurse-led discharge approach during her times as a ward sister in the early 2000s that successfully resulted in many more young people safely going home earlier.
• She was instrumental in the creation of a sensory garden at the hospital to help children with a learning disability feel at ease and make visits less daunting. Feedback from families ever since it opened has been overwhelmingly positive.
• When nurturing the next generation of nurses, she recognises the emotional challenges her colleagues face and champions finding ways to help them to ‘top up their emotional bank account’.
• Despite her rise in seniority, she values being a nurse and shows compassion for the families she cares for and the staff she leads, whilst continually looking for ways to improve the experiences of all.

Elizabeth Ann Hughes – 63 years old
Lately Regional Director of Education and Quality, Health Education England and Consultant, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust. For services to Healthcare Education and Training

• She is Director of the Sandwell Medical Research Unit, one of the leading UK centres for research into diabetes and heart disease particularly focusing on cardiovascular risk in the South Asian community.
• Through her international work at Health Education England (HEE), she has worked with Royal Colleges and overseas governments to develop high quality medical education programmes.
• She developed specific programmes to support speciality training in the UK for doctors from the Middle East and supported the development of medical training in China.
• She has been a consultant in chemical pathology and metabolic medicine for over 29 years, providing clinical care to deprived communities.
• She has developed innovative screening programmes to identify people at risk from hard-to-reach communities.
• She has been a trustee and board director of the national charity HEARTUK for 25 years, supporting and empowering patients with inherited lipid disorders.
• Locally she founded the charity Healthy Hearts to provide screening for cardiovascular risk factors and diabetes and provide education to local communities.

Kelly Jade Sotherton – 43 years old
For services to Track and Field Athletics and the Promotion of Women’s Sport

• She is one of Britain’s best known and respected elite track and field athletes having competed in the heptathlon as well as the long jump and 400m.
• Her career highlights include Olympic Medals in 2004 Athens (heptathlon), 2008 Beijing (heptathlon) and 2008 Beijing (4 x 400m relay).
• She has also represented her country at the 2007 World Championships and the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne where she won the gold medal in the heptathlon.
• Since retiring from competition, she has thrown herself enthusiastically into helping others in the sport and set up the British Athletics ‘Athlete to Coach’ programme, working as an Age Group Team Coach and Team Coach at the Commonwealth Games 2018.
• She is committed to developing the role and opportunities for women in sport and serves as an elected member of the IAAF’s Women’s Committee. She is a Board Member at Sport’s People Think Tank who have recently reviewed the under-representation of BAME coaches and managers within football.