Published at 15:57, Wednesday, 18 March 2009

THE Queen remembers her visit to Whitehaven last summer. She told Kerry Maxwell so when Kerry was at Buckingham Palace last week to receive her OBE.

Receiving the OBE: Kerry Maxwell outside Buckingham Palace

Kerry, chief executive of Whitehaven Community Trust, said she was nervous but excited when she stepped forward to accept the honour. “She asked me what I did and where I came from and when I said Whitehaven she told me she was there last year. I said, I know!’’

Kerry also met racing driver Lewis Hamilton who was there to receive his MBE and got his autograph.

Accompanied by her husband John and sons James (left) and Jonathan (right) the family, who live at Corkickle, Whitehaven, enjoyed their star-studded London break in which they also saw Julia Roberts and Clive Owen on the red carpet at Leicester Square for the premiere of their film, Duplicity..

Kerry, who was given the award in the New Year’s Honours List, has been with the Trust (formerly Whitehaven Youth Trust) for almost 20 years and during that time she has given help and guidance to hundreds of young people.

She is no stranger to awards, having won the 2005 Cumbria Woman-of-the-Year award and, in 2002, the Social Entrepreneur of the Year title, given by Ernst & Young in recognition of her business achievement and enterprise.

While such accolades have been gracefully accepted, for Kerry, 45, the OBE is “the creme de la creme”.

The trust promotes the mechanism of social enterprise, using the business solutions to achieve public good.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk