A FOUNDING member of a Rugby-based service for rape victims has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
Fay Maxted was given the gong for representing the needs of rape and sexual violence victims in the corridors of power, in her role as chief executive officer of The Survivors’ Trust.
She said the honour was a complete surprise which overwhelmed her when she first found out.
“You don’t see many honours going to a sector that deals with such a taboo subject,” she added. “It feels absolutely wonderful to feel that you’ve had an impact and been recognised at the national level for raising this issue.
Fay, who began working in the sector at victim support agency ROSA when she first moved to Rugby 20 years ago, now works to promote and represent such agencies and their clients in high-powered meetings at the Home Office, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Department of Health and the Ministry of Justice, among others.
She said: “I know the value of these services and the difference they make, and they are life-saving services. It actually gives people their lives back. To be able to support people in that way makes you feel very worthwhile.
“Often they aren’t funded as well as they should be. They struggle along from one fund to the next and put everything into it. The work of volunteers in those agencies is just amazing.
“For me, it’s about bringing survivors’ needs to the fore and saying ‘this is what we do, this is why we do it, and this is why it matters’.”
• A LIFETIME champion of scouting who founded WAGS Gang Show has been awarded an MBE.
Tony Guy was honoured for services to scouting in Blackpool and Warwickshire, having been involved with the scouting movement for 70 years.
Tony – an Ambassador for Scouting in Warwickshire and a Director of WAGS Gang Show – joined 20th Blackpool Scouts in the mid 1940s and has been actively involved ever since.
In 1971 Tony moved to Warwickshire and started the Warwickshire Gang Show (WAGS), and a decade later he led 400 Scouts and leaders to stage WAGS Gang Show in Dallas and Forth Worth, Texas, which featured in a TV Documentary Dallas or Bust.
On their return they also performed at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre annually for three years.
Tony continued to produce the show for 25 years when he handed over to a new team – but continues to be responsible for promoting WAGS as Business Director.
Tony also served as Chairman of the County Scout Executive Committee, becoming Ambassador for Scouting Warwickshire in 2012. He has now taken on the responsibilities as County Communication Manager, developing Communications and Media for Scouting throughout Warwickshire.
In 2005 he was awarded the highest Scouting award, the Silver Wolf and a 50 year Long Service Award in 2013.
Tony said: “Being in Scout Gang Shows it is great to see the youngsters develop, gain confidence and go on to achieve greater things in their lives.
“Some of the members of the Gang have gone on to work in the theatre in the West End and one has become the lighting director for one of the National touring shows.”
Tony has been married to Joyce for 54 years. The couple, who have three children, Darren, David and Alison, and young granddaughter Charlotte, live in a 200 year-old lockkeeper’s cottage near Henley.
