Campaigners and 999 heroes on a mission to keep us safe

HONOURS have been awarded to 43 police, ambulance and hospital workers who helped victims of last year’s horrifying terror attacks in London and Manchester.

Special Sergeant Jared Simpson was one of the first officers on the scene after suicide bomber Salman Abedi struck at an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people at the Manchester Arena in May 2017.

Learning of his British Empire Medal for services to policing, he said: “My first thought is always for the victim or victims.”

Chief Inspector Dale Sexton, who gets the Queen’s Police Medal, helped co-ordinate the force after the blast.

He said: “I regard this as a reflection of the exceptional courage everyone displayed.”

Dr Malik Ramadhan, who operated through the night on 12 victims of the London Bridge attack in June 2017, gets an OBE for services to healthcare. After the incident, he said: “Colleagues came flooding into the hospital to help.”

Paul Woodrow, operations director for the London Ambulance Service, gets an OBE for his role that night.

Colin Kelsey, who led the NHS response to the Manchester attack, also gets an OBE, as does Peter Boorman, for his work on the Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response for the NHS in London.

NHS England chairman Lord Prior said: “These are remarkable people doing extraordinary things for their fellow citizens.”

No awards will be made for responses to the Grenfell Tower disaster until the public inquiry ends.

Seven firefighters who saved elderly residents from a blaze at a care home in Cheshunt, Herts, and 13-year-old Joe Rowlands, who saved his father from drowning on a kayaking trip, are also honoured.

A campaigning father whose teenage son was stabbed to death gets an OBE for his work tackling youth violence. Mark Prince, whose son Kiyan was killed after trying to break up a fight, said the “tears started running” after he learned of his award for his work with the Kiyan Prince Foundation.

John Clough, whose daughter was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 2010, said he was “very proud” to be made an MBE for services to victims of domestic abuse.

And Melissa Mead, who has campaigned to raise awareness of sepsis following the death in 2014 of her one-year-old son, William, from the infection, said she was “humbled” by her MBE.