A FORMER nurse who has worked tirelessly in her community in Radcliffe has been honoured with an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

During the pandemic, Tina Harrison has ensured that dozens of families who are struggling received food parcels along with the support they needed.

But the 62-year-old has been helping her community long before the coronavirus crisis.

Over the past ten years she's been helping vulnerable people in the area by setting up a community group, Corrie Gardeners.

The volunteer-run group teaches gardening skills to young people and families, along with providing advice on legal matters and Universal Credit applications.

Alongside this she co-ordinates the Trinity Church Foodbank, which before the pandemic it distributed around 20 food parcels a week, but this figure soared to 150 in lockdown.

Tina said: "At first I thought it was a hoax when I got the email, there are so many of these scam emails around I just assumed it was one of them.

"When I finally realised what it was it was a bit of a shock.

"I never expected to receive something like this, never ever, it was so out of the blue.

"I don't do any of this for myself, I do it for the community and for the people who live here.

"There's always been a strong community spirit here and I've always been involved with things, but when the pandemic hit lots of volunteers of the foodbank had to self-isolate so we had to step up the effort.

"We handed out around 150 food hampers at the time; the community just came together."

A key part of helping others for Tina is ensuring people feel empowered.

She added: "I also realised coming out of lockdown that a lot of people were struggling financially or battling with their mental health.

"For me it's important that people know that they are valued by society.

"We lost a couple of the young men we work with due to suicide which had a big impact on us as volunteers; they were there one day and gone the next.

"So it's really important to me to make sure that people are looked after and that they feel needed, so that they feel part of the community."