SPRIGHTLY 90-year-old Pauline Ward has received an honour for her endless fundraising and charity work in Purton.

The retired secretary has been involved in fundraising since she moved to the village in 1970.

Today she plays a key role in three local initiatives, as well as helping to generate cash for other causes.

And on Monday, she was presented with an MBE by Sarah Rose Troughton, the Lord Lieutenant Of Wiltshire, in front of a gathering of 65 friends and associates held at the Red House Social Hall.

Mrs Ward, a widow, said: “I’m completely overwhelmed.

“I don’t understand why I have got it but it’s a terrific honour. It’s something I never thought I would get in my lifetime.

“It’s lovely to think that people think that of me but I cannot think why.

“I’m no different from anybody else and I have done no more than anyone else in the village over the years.

“But I think it’s lovely to get an honour at my age. It’s such an excellent award.”

Mrs Ward, of Station Road, is the secretary of the Purton Silver Threads, a social organisation for elderly people, which meets at the Silver Threads Hall in the High Street.

She is also the chairman of Purton Helping Hand, which helps needy people from the village, such as the elderly at Christmas and those in hospital, as well as those affected by fires and floods.

She is also the secretary of the Purton Helping Hand Carnival, an off-shoot and the main fundraiser of the Helping Hand initiative.

She supports these initiatives by helping to organise tabletop sales, concerts and other activities, and by baking goods to sell at tabletop sales.

Lynda Warren, the chairman of Purton and Lydiard Charity Fund, which has been helped in the past by Mrs Ward, said: “It’s like a working week for her, a working week with no payment.

“She’s doing jobs most people do at half her age. She’s definitely well deserving. ”