EXPAT HONOURED

A BIG-hearted expat has been awarded a British Empire Medal in the King’s Birthday Honours.

Sylvia Gallimore was handed the gong in recognition of her 50 years of charity, community and voluntary work.

Sylvia, who lives in San Miguel de Salinas, first became involved in charity work through the Horfield Prison in Bristol, where she taught literacy skills to help improve inmates’ futures on release.

She did this while also running a canteen for the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service, fundraising for a school, and running an animal rescue project.

In 1996, Sylvia shifted her focus to the visually impaired community in Bristol, fundraising for the Royal National Institute of Blind People and to help young people get the opportunity to expand their horizons.

“I cannot say how proud I am to receive the medal from His Majesty,” said Sylvia. “I was rather thrown into the world of the poorly-sighted when my son lost his sight in 1996 and since then I have had the pleasure of meeting some wonderful visually impaired people and tried to enhance their lives as best I could.”

She also played a crucial role in establishing the charity ‘Have Stick Will Travel’ founded in 2002 by her son Daniel, who lost his sight at the age of 21.

More recently since living in Spain, Sylvia has supported the Help at Home Costa Blanca charity, which helps people with mobility or health issues attend medical appointments or run errands.

She’s also written a book called ‘Sleeping Rough’ to raise money for the homeless charity Shelter.

His Majesty’s Ambassador to Spain, Hugh Elliott said: “Sylvia has dedicated her life to helping others and her significant contributions for over 50 years of community and voluntary work have improved the lives of countless individuals, from her native Bristol to Spain.”

“This Honour represents a lifetime of service and is very much deserved,” Elliott concluded

Breeding

ing proposals that would have seen 300 hectares of panels in the Sierra Escalo- na, which was classified as a protected area in 2018 in particular for birds.

A HUMAN rights group has claimed international laws were violated as it put the death toll from a Spanish/Moroccan border fence incident at 37.

Amnesty International also ruled that the June 2022 ‘avalanche’ has also left 76 migrants still unaccounted for.

The figure is considerably higher than the 23 official victims reported by the Moroccan authorities.

Amnesty has now accused the Spanish and Moroccan governments of failing to carry out ‘an effective investigation’.

It claims it has left family members of those who died or disappeared in limbo.

The attempt to storm the border saw around 2,000 mostly Sudanese men approach the fence in Melilla at 8.30am.

The ombudsman has also revealed that 470 of the migrants were sent back to Morocco ‘without taking into account the national or international legal provisions’.