Two Salisbury women made MBE’s in King’s Birthday Honours
Sally Orange and Claire Bessant have been given the awards
Last updated 17th Jun 2023
A pair of women from Salisbury have been awarded MBE’s in this years King’s Birthday Honours list.
Adventure athlete Sally Orange and animal welfare worker Claire Bessant have received the awards.
Sally said: “I never ever thought was in in the running or, you know, even possible, it hasn't really sunk in yet,” while Claire called it a big surprise.
Claire found the envelope with the news when returning from a holiday to Northern Ireland: “There's not much interesting in the post these days really. But there was an envelope that said, His Majesty's service so I opened it. Well, you sort of don't really believe it to be honest, it was thrilling.”
Asked where it ranked among their achievements, Claire called it the “cherry on top” and Sally described it as her “greatest achievement”.
A record breaker changing the stigma around mental health
Sally’s journey to her MBE has been far from easy. She was medically discharged from her role as a physiotherapist with the Armed Forces with severe depression and chronic anxiety.
But she found a way forward from her toughest days with help from mental health and armed forces charities like SSAFA and Walking with the Wounded.
After getting the help she needed, Sally decided to give back and took to running marathons dressed as fruit, which she said positively impacted her mental health.
“The benefits of exercise, just the comrade camaraderie of the other people that you're with. That's massive thing, as well as being supported by people who are positive and getting out and giving yourself that goal,” she said.
And why running marathons dressed as fruit? To make people smile.
“It's really nice to make other people smile. But then they asked me why, and I tell them that I want to break the stigma associated with mental illness and so many times people will say I've had a problem, or I know someone has had a problem and it really certainly starts that conversation and it yeah, it just normalise it in that way.”
Sally has run 80 marathons so far, including this year’s London marathon, dressed as a cream cracker, as well as cycling the length of New Zealand among other adventure exploits.
She also set several world-records including being the first person to complete a marathon on every continent in fancy dress.
The animal lover who made a difference
Claire spent 28 years as the CEO of International Cat Care (ICC) which has spent the last several decades improving the care on offer to cats.
Under Claire’s leadership ICC went from a UK-based organisation with three staff to a charity working internationally with an annual income of more than £2 million.
She told us: “The charity began because there was no treatment for cats 65 years ago. People who had cats just there was nowhere to go for treatment. The vets didn't know either. No one had done any research.”
ICC created their own veterinary journal for cats and veterinary society for vets who are interested.
“It goes beyond the veterinary sphere and it always did because it was started by owners who wanted treatment for their cats,” Claire said.
Recently retired, Claire says working in animal welfare has been a “joy”: “I've thoroughly enjoyed working, in animal welfare all these years. It's just been a joy, really, to be honest. And we've achieved an awful lot and we've just taken great satisfaction in that.”