Picking up MBE was ‘awesome’
BRITAIN’S most successful Winter Paralympian described meeting the Queen as ‘awesome’ as she collected her MBE.
Skier Menna Fitzpatrick, 20, from Tytherington, returned from the Pyeongchang Paralympics earlier this year with one gold medal, two silver and a bronze.
She and her on-slope guide Jennifer Kehoe were both honoured with MBEs and attended an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle to collected the awards. Menna, a former Fallibroome Academy pupil, said: “It’s really awesome she knew what we’d done and said ‘Congratulations on winning the gold medal’, and she said that South Korea would have been a pretty cool place to go to and I said we had a lot of fun.”
Menna, who has no vision in her left eye and limited sight in her right, made her senior international debut for Great Britain in 2012 and competes in the B2 category for visually impaired athletes.
And four years later with Ms Kehoe, an Army officer, the pair became the first British skiers to win the overall World Cup visually impaired title in Aspen, Colorado.
She first skied at the age of five on a family holiday.
Menna said: “Jen will set the rhythm of the course and then she’ll point out whether there are any lumps or if the piste is going from steep to flat, trying to paint a picture in my head of what the piste is looking like.
“Then I tell her if I’m on her line or if I’m further away than I need to be.
“I absolutely got hooked on racing and skiing and have not stopped. Whenever I’m on a family skiing holiday I’m right in there behind my dad, going offpiste, over jumps, experiencing the whole mountain.”
Last month the pair were honoured at the Women of the Year Awards and were given the outstanding achieve- ment award. The award was presented by Dame Katherine Grainger DBE and Baroness Tanni GreyThompson DBE at the InterContinental Hotel, in Mayfair.
Upon receiving the award Menna said: “Amazing is all I can really say. We throw ourselves off downhill runs and this is probably one of the most nerve-wracking moments.
“We really are humbled to be, well, firstly here with these amazing women who are doing some awesome things and also to be recognised for what we did this year, so thank you.”