Sandra Horley, the former chief executive of the domestic violence charity Refuge, and Sara Llewellin, chief executive of the grant-maker the Barrow Cadbury Trust, have been made dames in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Horley retired last year after 37 years at Refuge while Llewellin, who has led Barrow Cadbury since 2009, previously held senior roles at the grant-maker the City Bridge Trust and the young people’s support charity the St Giles Trust.
The honours list included CBEs for Mike Adamson, Lynda Thomas and Lindsay Boswell, the chief executives of the British Red Cross, Macmillan Cancer Support and FareShare respectively.
The same honour went to Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, David Bryan, chair of the arts charities Battersea Arts Centre and Brixton House, Bill Ferris, former chief executive of Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, and Karin Woodley, chief executive of the poverty and social justice charity Cambridge House.
Among the voluntary sector chief executives to receive OBEs were Javed Khan of Barnardo’s, Becky Hewitt, formerly of the disfigurement charity Changing Faces, Mark Lever of the volunteering organisation Helpforce, Vidhya Alakeson from the community business organisations Power to Change, and Michael Newman of the Association of Jewish Refugees.
OBEs also went to Ellie Orton, chief executive of NHS Charities Together, Vic Rayner, chief executive of the National Care Forum, Anna Yearley, joint executive director of the legal action NGO Reprieve and Mark Robinson, founder of the Prison Radio Association.
The same honour was given to Sue Bell, founder and chief executive of the young people’s mental health charity Kids Inspire, Hilary Carty, director of the Clore Leadership programme, Andy Clements, former chief executive of the British Trust for Ornithology, Joanna Dyson, head of food at FareShare, and Jenny Field, deputy director at the grant-maker the City Bridge Trust and Lisa King, director of communications and external relations at Refuge.
A host of voluntary sector figures were awarded MBEs, including Henny Braund, chief executive of the blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan, Carolyn Bunting, chief executive of the internet safety organisation Internet Matters, Gillian Shepherd-Coates, chief executive of Age UK Sevenoaks and Tonbridge, Daryl Brown, chief executive of Magpas Air Ambulance, Sheila Furlong, chief executive of the mental health charity The Archway Foundation, and Rachel Huxford, director of marketing and fundraising at the RAF Association.
Twenty-one-year-old Amika George, founder of the #FreePeriods Campaign, is the youngest of the more than 1,100 people on the list and has been given an MBE for her work tackling period poverty.
The Cabinet Office said almost two-thirds of people on the list had been recognised for community work.
It also said that 23 per cent of the people receiving honours had been recommended because of service relating to the Covid-19 pandemic.