Grantham woman, whose selfless project was inspired by Ricky Gervais' Afterlife, among three from the area named in Queen's Birthday Honours list
Three Grantham people are included in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.
Frontline workers and community champions dominate the most ethnically diverse Honours List to date, with 13% of the recipients from a minority ethnic background.
Of those who have been awarded, 72% go to those who have worked tirelessly for their local community. This reflects the huge voluntary effort across the country in response to COVID-19, with recipients cumulatively supplying millions of free meals to those shielding, delivering care packages to NHS frontline workers and clocking up countless voluntary hours to support those at risk.
Penelope Bond, travel consultant and volunteer reserve at London North Eastern Railway, was honoured with a British Empire Medal (BEM) for her services to the Covid-19 response, during which she started and ran a project that sent letters and poems to residents in Grantham care homes to combat loneliness.
Also on the list from the area is Professor Sally Ann Shearer, executive director of nursing, Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust, who received an OBE for services to nursing, and Pauline Fletcher, visitor centre co-ordinator at HM Prison Whatton, received a BEM for her services to prisoners and their families.
Penelope, aged 41, was so surprised to be honoured with the BEM that she couldn't quite believe that the letter she received from the Cabinet Office was real. She said: “I thought it was a joke. I read the subject heading and I was like, 'why hasn’t that gone into my spam folder?'
“I thought the only way I’d get to the bottom of this was to ring the number that was on the letter. The man said 'no, I really do work at the cabinet office.'
“He must’ve been so used to people ringing up and checking if it was a real thing. I still didn’t believe it, so I rang again the next day. I still don’t believe them now to be honest.
"It hasn’t really sunk in yet. I never expected anything like this. It’s crazy."
Penelope, who lives in Grantham, plans to celebrate the exceptional achievement with a spot of afternoon tea, noting that "It’s the British thing to do, isn’t it? I’m a really big fan of afternoon tea, so it’s the perfect excuse."
She continued: “Never once thought that my name would be on a letter like that.
“When you go out and about and you’re helping communities, that’s rewarding in itself, so you never expect anything at the end of it."
As well as signing up as an LNER reserve during the coronavirus crisis, Penelope also signed up as an NHS responder. However, the main reason she will receive an BEM is her ‘A letter to a friend, a letter of joy’ project, which involved sending letters to provide company to residents in care homes who were isolated by lockdown.
She said: "I mean, [A letter to a friend] really took off, I never expected it. I work on the railway for LNER and we started this reserve group during lockdown, so that we could all go out and help our communities.
"There was such an overwhelming response. I put my name down as an NHS responder as well.
“I just needed to get out and do something. I didn’t feel like I was doing enough.
"I just thought, I’ll just speak to the care homes because everything you ever heard or read was really negative. They’re not allowed visitors, they’re not allowed out. They were on complete lockdown. I just thought, it must be so scary for them to be in that position.
“So, I contacted a few care homes in Grantham and they were like ‘that’s a lovely idea’ and then it just grew! I don’t even know how it happened.
"It went from me sending 35 letters to other LNER reserves across the country asking if they could do it. And before long, it’s in London and Scotland, Newcastle and York. And then, today, we’ve sent out 36,000 pieces to care homes, over 9,000 residents have had letters and poems. The numbers are just... I never thought it would get so big."
Penelope revealed her inspiration for the wonderful idea to help people in care homes at such a dire time.
She said: “I was literally watching Afterlife during lockdown eating my Easter Egg and I was watching [Ricky Gervais’ character] visit his dad every day and they don’t necessarily have conversations but it’s a routine for them both.
"I thought of all the people in care homes that weren’t going to get that. That’s the one thing that they have, that’s now been taken away.
"That’s where the idea came from. I thought, I need to get into the care homes, I need to start cheering the residents up and letting them know that we haven’t forgotten about them.
“I started it, but the LNER reserves did a massive job. I’m so proud of all of them because they took it to places that I couldn’t get to.
“I’ve had lovely cards sent back and letters from the residents. One day they gave me a bouquet of flowers and I sat crying in my car because I didn’t expect it. I don’t really want the recognition, I’m quite happy just to go under the radar doing it.
"It’s just incredible. I don’t think people realise that there’s a lot of care homes that don’t have activity coordinators. They don’t have the funding for it. So we’re sending them word searches and crosswords and music quizzes and things to do.
“Even people in Grantham have spoken to me and said, ‘my family are in care homes, what you’re doing is incredible.’ They know that we’re looking out for them. It’s been really lovely.
“I’ve set a pen pal scheme up with two of them now, so I’ve got two care homes in Grantham writing to each other so that they can get to know each other, because I wanted to try and build friendships up between the residents.
“We did all the books as well, because I thought I bet they’ve got the same books that they’ve had for quite a while, so I linked up with a man in Doncaster and he’s actually in the process of getting me 20,000 books! You just don’t expect people to be that generous."