Cher Sawyer 'humbled' to receive MBE (From This Is Wiltshire)

Cher Sawyer 'humbled' to receive MBE

7:00am Thursday 31st December 2009 in

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HOMELESS charity stalwart Cher Sawyer has said receiving an MBE in the New Year’s Honours is just the first step in her quest to transform charity work in Swindon.

Cher, 51, has been working tirelessly at Threshold Housing Link for 25 years and has seen it flourish from a charity surviving on £35,000 and a single hostel to a million pound organisation which operates 10 separate services.

Cher said she had no idea she was in line for the award and when she got the envelope from the Cabinet Office she didn’t think twice about it being anything so important.

She said: “We have a great deal of dialogue with parliament through the charity and as a result we get lots of official letters and so I just assumed it was something connected to work.

“When I opened it I just had to read and re-read what it said because I honestly thought it was a joke.

“It is so humbling and I am very gracious about it – it feels so nice to think I was nominated and people think I deserve this.”

She was sworn to secrecy when she received the letter and only told her son, Ben, at one minute past midnight this morning.

Cher originally planned to come to Swindon for a few years after moving from Gibraltar where she was working as a midwife.

When she started at Threshold, Cher was a nurse and her role was purely medical, but she has worked her way up and is now the business development director.

Now, a quarter of a century on, she says she would not change a thing and that her journey into helping more charities in Swindon has now only just begun.

She said: “This is a lovely start to 2010 but I am really hoping it will open doors for me and enable me to become an ambassador for charities in Swindon.

“We need to make sure we are delivering what people need and the services that are wanted.

“There are so many great charities in Swindon, no matter how big or small, and I would like to extend my help to all of them.

“We need to all work in partnership and I think the future for charities in Swindon is looking brighter.

“This award is just a lovely way of celebrating my 25th year with a great charity.”