Spalding man Mark Le Sage is celebrating after being awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Mark (52) is being recognised for the voluntary service he has done to help the community and aid the rehabilitation of offenders.
He said: “It was such a wonderful surprise and a bit of a shock, however I feel very proud to be recognised in such a way.
“All I have really done is my job as best as I can and help in a community that I care for and want to be the best environment for my children and grandchildren to grow up in.”
In 1995, former prison officer Mark started Men and Violence, an innovative and life changing programme for people in prison.
For more than 15 years he has been helping to coordinate the Butler Trust award ceremonies.
Mark set up The Rightside Trust and a programme called See Sense Not a Sentence which works towards rehabilitation as well as with school children to offer support before they get into trouble. He visits schools and colleges to speak and offers support to divert young people away from criminal activity.
Mark also runs Ella’s Project which redistributes children’s clothes to those less fortunate, including Syrian refugees, Grenfell Tower victims who lost everything in the fire and many others in need at home and abroad.
When he was diagnosed with skin cancer, he set up Get it Seen, Get it Sorted to publicise the need to attend to skin cancer immediately.
He has qualified as a nurse since retiring from the prison service and has become the Vice Chair of the Lincolnshire branch of the Royal College of Nursing.
