AFTER dedicating more than 30 years to charity work, councillor Mo Larkin will be presented with the British Empire Medal.

HRH the Duke of Gloucester will present the BEM to the Mayor of Basildon ahead of the homecoming march of the Anglian Regiment through Basildon on November 8.

As well as being a Justice of the Peace she is also chairman of Age Matters, a trustee of Crossroads and she has also been involved in both the Youth Links and Prison No Way projects.

In total 293 people in the UK have been selected to receive the reinstated BEM as part of the Queen's 2012 birthday honours.

It was founded in 1917 but later scrapped by former Prime Minister John Major in 1993 in a bid to make the honours system "classless".

For the full story see Monday's Echo.