This was how Coral Kelham modestly referred to being awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM). While Coral loves getting out and about the village, talking to people as she goes (she knows so many people that a shopping trip to the Coop can take her all morning), she doesn’t really like to brag about her achievements – but we, at Barrow Voice, thought she was too much of an inspiration to pass by.

In 2020, Coral received the British Citizen Award Certificate of Honour in recognition of her “exceptional, positive impact on society and as an inspiration to others”. She went to the Houses of Parliament to collect this. She’ll be invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace as a result of the BEM award.

Coral received a letter “out of the blue” from the Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire, Mike Kapur OBE, which told her about being awarded the BEM; he wrote that it was for “the contribution you have made to our community over many years. It is fitting that your dedicated and selfless service has been rewarded and acknowledged with a National Honour”. The first thing Coral did, was phone her daughters (Penny and Sue) to tell them!

Coral’s service to the community over the years has included:

• 26 years giving life-saving blood; she has the very rare RhA – blood-type. She was no longer allowed to donate when she reached her 80th birthday.
• 18 years of knitting jumpers for International Aid – she’s still knitting!
• 60 years with the Methodist Ladies Circle… knitting quite hundreds of poppies for Armistice Day over the decades.

Coral has lived in Barrow since she got married in 1954 and was originally a hairdresser for Lewis’s in Leicester but many village people may remember her as a dinner lady at Humphrey Perkins School for about 20 years during the ‘70s and ‘80s. Besides being a central figure in the village, Coral has travelled around the world with her late husband (Tony) who worked – and travelled – for Brush. She says the only continent she hasn’t visited is South America – one of her favourite places was Alaska. Now that her travelling days are over, Coral enjoys knitting (you can see her winning jumper at the Village Show in the last issue of Barrow Voice) and watching the snooker on TV. She plays bowls in Quorn and often joins the Barrow Walking Group for their Tuesday walks. All this at the age of 90. Coral, you really are an inspiration.

Karisa Krcmar