Overview

• Carmela Chillery-Watson has become the youngest person ever to receive an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours for her services to charitable fundraising.
• Diagnosed with LMNA congenital muscular dystrophy at age three, she has led about 25 campaigns, raising over £400,000 for Muscular Dystrophy UK through challenges like a 300 km trek and a 100-mile walk.
• She offers online exercise sessions to support people with muscular dystrophy and similar disabilities who lack access to physiotherapy.
• On June 23, Carmela and her mother will take part in the ‘Poo Plod’, a five-mile walk and wheel challenge dressed as a toilet and a poo to raise funds for specialist school facilities in Poole.
• Other Dorset honourees include Deborah Haynes of the Civil Contingencies Unit, awarded an MBE for resilience work, and Mike Grimshaw of Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue, who received a British Empire Medal for public service.