Women’s Aid ambassador Mandy Wood of Swindon has been awarded the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to charitable fundraising.
Ms Wood, a survivor of domestic violence, was quoted by the Swindon Advertiser as saying: “This honour is not mine alone. I accept it on behalf of my children, all victims, survivors and services involved.”
She also works with Refuge, Breaking The Silence and Free Your Mind.
Sergeant Deborah Ashthorpe has been awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for her commitment to providing excellent services to victims of domestic abuse in Hampshire.
She helped launch the Conditional Cautioning and Relationship Abuse programme aimed at changing perpetrator behaviour to reduce risk and repeat offending.
Sergeant Ashthorpe played a key role in establishing the force’s domestic violence advocate cars, in partnership with domestic abuse charity Aurora New Dawn, where police and experts jointly respond to domestic abuse calls to give a holistic victim response, The News in Portsmouth reported.
She has also trained 450 constabulary staff as domestic abuse champions, and has developed and led the national domestic abuse champions network.
