A proud day at the castle
FORMER Newbury Cancer Care chairman David Ball has received his gong – 14 months after he was appointed an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Mr Ball was a Newbury magistrate for 23 years and also played an active role in The Rosemary Appeal – a £5.3m fundraising campaign to build a cancer care and renal dialysis unit at West Berkshire Community Hospital.
He said this week: “After all this time, the call from Windsor Castle came out of the blue, but it was definitely worth the wait.
“Prince Charles officiated at the investiture and all castle staff made it a wonderful event worth remembering; they were all so courteous and kind and made such an occasion of it for us.”
Mr Ball said his late mother, who he dedicated the achievement to, would have been immensely proud and would have told “everyone she knew that her boy had got an OBE”.
He said: “She would have been dancing all the way to the castle.”
However, 72-year-old Mr Ball, who lives in Chieveley with his wife of 46 years Anna, added: “I would never have got the OBE if it hadn’t been for the incredible people I have worked with over the years.”
When the news of the award was announced, his friend and colleague at The Rosemary Appeal Dr Rob Tayton said: “David has been an invaluable support and the community owes him a debt of gratitude for all the work he has done over the years and, indeed, decades.”
Former Newbury MP Richard Benyon added: “David is one of those people that keeps our community glued together. He has done an extraordinary amount of work for so many local good causes.
“He applies his keen business mind, overlaid with an extraordinary compassion and all of us living in West Berkshire owe him our thanks.”
Mr Ball, whose career in medical technology spanned 40 years, now works as an independent funeral and wedding celebrant.