The former chairman of Cambridgeshire Hearing Help has been honoured in the Queen's Jubilee Birthday Honours list.

Roger Hill is set to receive the British Empire Medal from the Queen in recognition of his work supporting thousands of deaf people over the years in Cambridgeshire, particularly during Covid.

Roger first joined the charity as a volunteer in 2009 and came out of retirement to help run things during the recent pandemic.

Mr Hill said: “It is a great honour to receive the British Empire Medal in recognition of the wonderful work of the volunteers and staff of Cambridgeshire Hearing Help who maintained NHS hearing aids during the Covid pandemic.

"After having to close 42 community-based clinics at the beginning of lockdown, our staff and volunteers opened a telephone/online battery replacement service followed by a number of remote Covid safe maintenance centres, enabling our 6,500 isolated hearing-impaired elderly users across Cambridgeshire to stay connected throughout the pandemic.”

Andrew Palmer is the Chief Executive of the Cambridgeshire Deaf Association, which now encompasses Cambridgeshire Hearing Help and said that Roger had played a very important part in the charity’s success.

He said: “I had the pleasure of working alongside Roger during Covid, in particular through the first lockdown when fear and uncertainty spread through vulnerable communities.

"Roger, a volunteer and chair of Hearing Help at the time, stepped up to lead the organisation through a very challenging time and ensure that people with hearing loss could continue to receive the support they needed to maintain their connections to the outside world, through their hearing aids. He took on more than a full-time job.

"Many of the people we support had to shield at that time, and the risks to mental health issues through isolation were very real. The importance of Roger’s work in ensuring people could keep their connections to friends and family via proper functioning hearing aids cannot be understated.

"It is because of people like Roger that communities could be helped to stay safe, supported and informed through that difficult time, and this honour is a fitting way to mark his dedication to the people of Cambridgeshire.”