The King’s New Year Honours list has revealed that a mother-of-four from Oswestry has received a British Empire Medal for her services to swimming and to the community of Shropshire.
Kath Kynaston, who was born in Oswestry and lived in Baschurch, has been awarded a BEM for her volunteering work at local swimming clubs.
Her youngest son, Michael Doyle, started competitive swimming in 2008 and it was soon after this that Kath saw the need for volunteers.
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Mrs Kynaston was in disbelief when she found out about the award. She said: “I found out very last minute.
“The Cabinet Office tried to get a hold of me, but they couldn’t because I have moved to Holyhead in Anglesey.
“To be honest I didn’t think it was genuine to start with – but I am in disbelief, and absolutely elated to be nominated.”
Alongside running her own successful business, the mother-of-four volunteered in a number of roles in swimming before being elected Chairman of Shrewsbury Amateur Swimming Club in 2015, until 2020.
She added: “I feel very grateful for all the others that were in the committee at the swimming club – I didn’t do it alone, it was a team effort.”
Mr Kynaston herself was a swimming official, including for para-swimming, giving many hours at galas across the region.
She was a member of the Shropshire ASA Committee and was ultimately elected President of Shropshire ASA.
During her life in Shropshire, Mrs Kynaston, has had a great number of voluntary roles including setting up a new Brownie pack to satisfy demand in Baschurch and becoming “Brown Owl”, a role many of the girls, now adults themselves, remember her for.
She served a four-year term as a Governor of The Corbet School in Baschurch, was secretary of the Corbet PTA for five years and secretary of Baschurch Conservatives, also for five years.
After moving to Anglesey, Mrs Kynaston soon felt the need to be doing something useful again and is now working full-time as a medical secretary at Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor, the largest hospital in North Wales as well as volunteering in her local RNLI shop.
She is planning on bringing her youngest son with her to the ceremony, as she explained he is the one that motivated her to be part of the swimming world.
Mrs Kynaston added: “He got me involved in swimming in the first place – but it hasn’t been decided yet.
“But I want to thank everyone, and the people who nominated me.”
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