A FORMER Test Valley mayor has received her MBE for her 50 years of service to Andover’s community, describing the day she was presented with the honour as “one of the best days of her life.”

Marion Kerley, who was a founding member of the town’s Age Concern branch, took the trip up to London on Thursday last week to shake hands with Prince Charles and claim her special honour.

The former Marks and Spencer manager and her family also spent their afternoon enjoying tea with North West Hampshire MP Kit Malthouse and his predecessor Lord George Young in the House of Lords to mark the occasion.

Mrs Kerley said: “I shook hands with a prince and a lord that day I was honoured, it was a wonderful experience.

“When people asked me who I would like to give the award I said Charles and I got my man!

“Lord Young invited my family and I to tea and it really was the icing on the cake.

“It was just a wonderful day I can’t express it.”

The millennium year mayor was recognised for a total of around 19,000 hours of volunteer work undertaken in Andover over the past five decades, and she continues to work with Age UK in the town.

Mrs Kerley helped establish Age Concern (now Age UK) in Andover with then fellow councillor Don Bentall, which she said began over a cup of tea in his kitchen one day.

She said: “Since we started it, it’s expanded and expanded. We were out to reach the people that were lonely, and there’s so many people that are lonely today not just older people.”

As a trustee at Age UK Mid Hampshire, Mrs Kerley continues to work with the group and is currently organising and “pleading” for donations for a Whitchurch pop-up shop in January.