King’s New Year Honours recipients include Ann Osborn of The Rural Coffee Caravan and former Norfolk County Council leader Andrew Proctor
A charity leader, whose work helps to connect some of the most isolated communities has been recognised in The King’s New Year’s Day Honours List.
Ann Osborn, chief executive of The Rural Coffee Caravan (RCC), has been awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to older people and combatting loneliness in the communities of Suffolk and Norfolk.
The 71-year-old from Weybread has committed the last 22 years of her life to the initiative which now has a fleet of vehicles and made more than 550 visits to rural villages in 2024, providing a place for people to meet over coffee and cake.
“When I first heard the news about the BEM I wondered who had nominated me,” she said.
“Truth be told, I felt a bit embarrassed because I have already had such a lot of public attention after the huge privilege of being awarded an honorary degree last year from the University of Suffolk.
“Now I have had chance to collect my thoughts, I do feel very proud to accept it and want to give credit to my brilliant team of staff and volunteers, without whom none of the achievements of The Rural Coffee Caravan over two decades would have been possible.”
Mrs Osborn was employed by the RCC, whose headquarters are in Walsham-le-Willows, soon after it was established in 2003 by the Rev Canon Sally Fogden and has grown the charity’s team into nine paid staff as well as having hundreds of volunteers across the county.
During the pandemic, the charity head continued to connect communities online and via “village phone tree” services and supervised the delivery of care packages to doorsteps in many of the villages where regular visits were postponed.
Mrs Osborn is also the founder of the fundraising group 500SuffolkReasons, set up to address the cost of living challenges.
The group collects £1 a week from those who sign up to be members, which creates a ‘£500 pot of kindness’ that they nominate to individuals or families that are experiencing difficulties.
The group has been able to help more than 150 families since it was set up in 2021.
Mrs Osborn will be presented with her BEM medal by the Lord-Lieutenant of Suffolk at a local ceremony in the coming months.
Those also in the Diss area to awarded BEMs in The King’s New Year’s Day Honours List are William Good from Attleborough, who is membership secretary at Wymondham Rugby Club who is awarded his for services to sport and 85-year-old Lilian Winter who was awarded her BEM for services to St. Elizabeth Hospice in Framlingham.
The former leader of Norfolk County Council Andrew Proctor has been made a MBE for services to local government, and The Rt. Hon. Patricia Hope Hewitt, chairwoman of the NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board, has been made a dame for services to healthcare transformation.
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