AN NHS charity hero best known for sitting in baths of baked beans has been recognised by The Queen in the New Year Honours.

Kevin Staniforth, nicknamed Stan The Man, has been awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to charity - organising 57 events during his 27 years as a painter and decorator at the Royal Berkshire Hospital.

The 48-year-old from Tilehurst has already received an NHS Hero award last year, having raised more than £50,000 for charities including Children In Need, the Royal Berks’ League of Friends and Babies In Buscot Support (BIBS)

Kevin is one of 14 Berkshire people named in the New Year Honours list today, alongside 91-year-old Reg Day, from Whitley, a Second World War Royal Air Force flight lieutenant, who also wins the BEM for services as custodian of the RAF Dunsfold Museum in Surrey.

Receiving OBEs are Professor James Knowlson, world renowned expert on Samuel Beckett, who is Emeritus Professor of French at Reading University and is recognised for services to literary scholarship, and Paul Swaddle, a Wokingham borough councillor and president of Reading East Conservatives, for voluntary political service.

Made MBE are Caversham’s Jeffrey Gardner, director of Reading-based Berkshire Youth and vice president of the National Boys and Girls Club, for services to young people, David Burbage, leader of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead for services to local government, Sandhurst’s Lyn Fairbrother, who chairs the Women’s Technical Committee of British Gymnastics and Lieut Colonel Stuart Arthur Rowsell, from Wokingham, a trustee of the North Hampshire Medical Education Trust, for charitable services.

Performing arts teacher Penny Brookman, known as the Maypole Lady, who teaches traditional English dancing in schools and voluntarily outside the classroom is honoured for services to education. The 63-year-old from Hungerford, who founded the Kintbury Mayday festival in 1982, also gives talks to schools on behalf of the Anthony Nolan Trust. She wins the British Empire Medal, as does Susan Bailey, founder member and chairwoman of the Windsor Great Park Sponsored Carriage Drive, for services to charitable giving in the UK.

The Royal Victorian Medal goes to two members of staff at the Crown Estate, Windsor, gardens team supervisor Ian Garnett and carpenter Robert McGee.

*Full stories and pictures of the honours recipients in this week’s Chronicle.