A SWINDON charity worker’s achievements with the homeless in Swindon have been honoured by the Queen.

Cher Sawyer, who has worked for the Threshold Housing Link for 25 years, was awarded the MBE by the Queen yesterday in a ceremony at Windsor Castle.

The 51-year-old said: “I can’t stop looking at it, it’s such an honour.

“It says on the medal ‘For God and the Empire’– it’s for your country and your community and you wear your medal with pride.”

Cher joined about 60 people receiving awards, from MBEs to knighthoods.

She celebrated the achievement with family and friends at the Longs Bar in Victoria Road afterwards.

She said the experience would be something she would remember forever.

“The Queen asked about the homelessness in Swindon and are we managing to reduce the numbers,” Cher said.

“I said ‘we’re solving the street homelessness, but it’s about the long term care of the homeless now.’ “She said ‘well I hope you have a nice party’ then I backed away.

“It’s clockwork, it’s a military precision operation, on the stroke of 11am she comes in and on the stroke of 12pm she goes out.”

Threshold Housing Link is a charity that has served the homeless in the Swindon area for 35 years.

When Cher started at Threshold she was a nurse and her role was purely medical, but she has worked her way up and is now the business development director.

During her time there, she has seen the charity go from a single hostel surviving on £25,000, a year to an organisation offering 10 services, helping 1,000 people a year, with a £1m turnover.

Cher’s proud moment was witnessed by mother her Edith Armstrong, son Ben Sawyer and husband Philip Smith.

However, Cher said when she arrived at Windsor Castle yesterday morning she still had no idea which member of the royal family she was to meet.

She only realised that she would be meeting the Queen when she saw that the Royal Standard was flying over the castle.

“What surprised me was her skin is like porcelain and she’s very beautiful, very clearly spoken, very quietly spoken and very interested,” Cher said.

The event was tinged with sadness because Cher is set to leave Threshold on March 5, but hopes to continue working in the charity sector.

“Hopefully it will give me more influence and open more doors for me and I can do more for charity because of my profile and experience and knowledge building the charity up from quite small,” Cher said.

She added it was good to spread the message about the good things that are happening in Swindon.

“There’s so much bad press about Swindon,” she said.

“There is something good in Swindon, not just the Magic Roundabout.”