I was enormously honoured to receive a British Empire Medal (BEM) in the King’s Birthday Honours list which was announced over the weekend.

The medal was awarded in recognition of services to the community of Claygate, where I have lived for many years with my family

Our efforts to establish wider facilities for the community to support all ages - in particular young people - and sport in the immediate area, while providing new options for others, came to fruition with the opening of the Claygate Pavilion. .

However, everything I’ve achieved for Claygate has been with the support of a huge number of volunteers both at the Claygate Recreation Ground Trust and other organisations, all of whom contributed hugely to helping rebuild the Pavilion and creating a new vision for Claygate.

I’m delighted that our hard work has been recognised in this way and want to say a big thank you to everyone who has helped us over the years.

My ambition in standing as Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Epsom & Ewell, Ashtead and Leatherhead is to extend the sort of work we’ve been engaged in in Claygate to this constituency, so that everyone can benefit from the kinds of improvements that are needed in the area.

If you’d like to get involved, you can find out more here.