Queen's birthday honours for incredible local residents

Date published: 01 June 2022

A selection of incredible people from the Rochdale borough including a managing director, a headteacher, a HMRC head of development, and a delivery driver have been named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours Lists 2022.

Recognising the outstanding achievements and services of people across the United Kingdom from all backgrounds, four people from the Rochdale borough have been honoured this year: Humera Haqqani (MBE), Catherine Connolly (MBE), Pamela Scarry (MBE) and Brian Morton (BEM).

---

Humera Haqqani, 60, is the managing director of Let’s Talk, a Rochdale charity offering a ‘wrap-around’ mental health service. She has been named a Member of the British Empire (MBE) for her services to business and the community in Rochdale.

Humera migrated to Rochdale in 1999 from the Netherlands and realised that a vast population within the migrant community in Rochdale were isolated and lacked basic skills in order to integrate.

In 2008 she started volunteering for a community radio station. She has continued since then to host a two-hour radio show in Urdu making her listeners aware of current affairs and national and local matters such as recycling, fire safety as well as social issues etc.

More recently, she hosted various shows from home during the lockdown, explaining and emphasising the need for compliance from the community.

She also encouraged listeners to get on board with the government’s vaccination drive: hundreds of her listeners confirmed that they only got the vaccine due to her explanation of its importance. During Covid, Humera organised virtual Islamic burial prayers using Zoom for people who had lost family members during the lockdown.

Since 2015 Humera – a qualified driving instructor – has been offering driving lessons free of cost to many victims of domestic violence who are unable to afford to pay her.

She also set up her own community support organisation, Let’s Talk, and runs weekly free courses ranging from Basic English Skills, ESOL, preparation for the life in the UK test, domestic violence/forced marriages support group and mathematical skills.

Humera also organised a weekly soup kitchen providing hot meals, weekly drop-in sessions for the over 55s to socialise and play games, a weekly drop-in women's club, a weekly girls’ youth club and a general drop-in session for any domestic violence victims or potential forced marriages victims.

A couple of times a year she also organises a drop-in medical health check event for people to get themselves checked by a team of volunteering medics. This ranges from making them aware of how to make medical appointments to having drop-in clinics to check their BP, blood glucose levels and other basic checks.

Humera also runs an annual integration event to help new migrants integrate with the locals. She has also organised donation collections and driven a van full of essentials to France to the asylum camps where Syrian asylum seekers were. She did this three times and always with female drivers. In addition, she organised and was responsible for sending over 40kg worth of hand-knitted/sewn items to Australia to help the recovery of animals caught in the wildfires.

Of her award, Humera said: "To be honest I was very surprised and shocked. I wasn't sure if it was for me or a scam. Thank you to the people who nominated me, and God too. I'm just doing my duty as a human being and I hope to be able to give more time like this."

---

 

 

Catherine 'Kate' Connolly is the headteacher at Brownhill Learning Community. She has been named a Member of the British Empire (MBE) for services to the education of disadvantaged and vulnerable children and young people.

Mrs Connolly said: "I feel very honoured and proud to be a recipient of the MBE. As a young person growing up on Langley, all I ever dreamt of was to own my own horse and to have a job that allowed this to happen: I did not expect that job to lead me to being named in the Queen’s Honours!

"I have had an amazing 38 years working in education, firstly in Manchester and for the last 21 years in Rochdale.

"The children and families at Brownhill are incredible to work with and inspire me every day to do the best I can. It has been a real pleasure to lead such a dedicated and hardworking staff team especially through the challenges of the last two years. They are the ones who deserve to be honoured.

"I am married with one son and teaching allowed me to realise that childhood dream."

---

 

 

Pamela Scarry is the Head of Development, Continuous Improvement Service at HM Revenue and Customs. She has been named a Member of the British Empire (MBE) for public service.

Pam is based at Trinity Bridge House in Salford and is Head of Development and Continuous Improvement in OE Customer Excellence.

She led a team of around 80 people who were responsible for creating the Government’s covid schemes: the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), the CJRS Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme, the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme and the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme.  

Mrs Scarry said: "I was privileged to have the best team in the world, based all over the UK, with one common objective of keeping people in work. We designed the processes for the covid schemes. We started with a blank sheet of paper. It was an elephant and the only way we could eat at it was in bite-size chunks. There was no precedent. 

"I loved it. It was the best time ever and the most ridiculous time ever. It felt like 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To come out the end and have people still in work was worth it. 

"It’s just been the most amazing 12 months, we won the HMRC People Awards - team of the year 2021, for designing the covid schemes. You’ve never seen a manager so proud."

Pam, who lives in Newhey, and members of her team also volunteered to help deliver the NHS vaccination programme, and she vaccinated people and stewarded at venues around Greater Manchester.  

She says: "Everybody wanted to give something back. What can we do and how can we get out of this mess as quickly as possible?  

"I’m proud, privileged and honoured to receive the MBE. I was shocked, when you get that first letter, you think wow! You’re honoured, aren’t you? You do things in a community and in work because it’s what you do and for someone to nominate you is beyond words."

 

---

 

 

Brian Morton, 45, has been granted The British Empire Medal (BEM), for services to the community in Milnrow and Newhey, Rochdale, during Covid-19.

Since lockdown began in March, Brian has worked up to 14 hours per day as a local Hermes (Evri) delivery driver. He has gone above and beyond this role to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the residents in the villages of Milnrow and Newhey.

Known throughout the village for his community spirit and support, Brian gave his contact details to all elderly and vulnerable residents so they could contact him for support if they were struggling throughout the pandemic.

Within days, he was running errands for vulnerable residents: delivering shopping, arranging online deliveries, collecting prescriptions and, alongside his Hermes deliveries, he would take residents’ parcels to the post office.

For one struggling resident, without being asked, he purchased a brand-new radio after theirs had broken. He knew this was his main source of company and was vital to the resident’s wellbeing.

The village community is at the heart of his work, and even on dog walks with his family, Brian knocks on the windows of isolated neighbours and says hello, offering the much-needed contact they have been missing.

To lift morale, he would give out little wooden pocket hugs to those who were lonely and sad due to restrictions, to give them hope and remind them they are not alone.

In addition, Brian contributed to the organisation of the local ‘Villages Unite’ Christmas bag, purchasing diaries, pens and puzzle books and delivering to the older residents of the community. During the first Christmas lockdown, he provided hundreds local children with gifts of chocolate to boost morale as there had been no typical Christmas visits from Father Christmas or local pantomimes.

Brian - who is known is 'Parcel Brian' in Milnrow and Newhey - said: "For me it was most satisfying to see the smiles on their faces and a sense of relief that someone did care. I did it to cheer people up and I think it gave the parents a bit of a buzz."

Even when his van was targeted by a gang, who stole equipment from his van, he immediately returned to work to ensure all commitments to local residents were delivered.

Brian added: "I didn't believe it when I got the letter. It arrived with 'Her Majesty's Service' on it and my wife thought I was going to prison! She was shaking, she was that scared. My mother-in-law had come round to visit and when she showed her, she cried. My wife actually was approached two years ago by the guy who nominated me, but she never told me in case nothing came of it and she wanted to keep it a surprise.

"I didn't believe it was real until the cabinet office rang me. I feel very proud and honoured to have received this, but I don't feel like what I did was any bigger than what everyone else was doing."

Brian is always available to the village at times of emergency. When the village fell victim to severe local flooding, he immediately began delivering sandbags, clearing residents’ drains and repairing any damage caused.

All this work was carried out by him voluntarily and done out of the goodness of his heart, motivated by his care for those who are in a worse situation. His support is the backbone of the village, and he has helped to create a community that supports each other in times of need.

---

The honours list, published twice a year, consists of knights and dames, appointments to the Order of the British Empire and gallantry awards to servicemen and women, and civilians.

The ranks of appointment to the Order are Commander (CBE), Officer (OBE) and Member (MBE).

British Empire Medals are also awarded to community volunteers for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Crown. The current honour was created in 1922 to replace the original medal, which had been established in 1917 as part of the Order of the British Empire.

Anyone can nominate someone for a Queen's birthday honour, as long as they are still actively involved in what you’re nominating them for.

Whether someone gets an honour – and the honour they get – is decided by an honours committee, whose recommendations go to the Prime Minister and then to the Queen, who awards the honour.