REPRESENTATIVES of the Michelle Jurd Memorial Trust have expressed their delight after the South Lakeland based charity was nominated for the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

The Trust have confirmed that after a nomination was put forward an assessment has now been carried out and they were waiting to hear whether they had made the shortlist.

The assessment was carried out by Claire Hensman, who is Lord-Lieutenant for Cumbria, and if the Trust is shortlisted, representatives will travel to London for the announcement of the winner and presentation later this year.

“It’s a great honour for us to be nominated and we are waiting to hear further,” said Michelle’s husband Neil, who founded the Trust and has worked tirelessly since then to make its work a success.

The charity, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, was founded in memory of Michelle, a former RAF officer who died in 2009.

It has now raised more than £200,000 for service organisations, including the RAF benevolent fund and the Gurkha Welfare Trust.

The main fundraising event is the Trust’s annual ball, which this year was held at the Netherwood Hotel in Grange-over-Sands.

The event was as ever a great success, and the Trust said the event will again take place in 2020, and have this week confirmed it will take place on November 28, with further details to follow in due course.

The Trust also held its annual general meeting in Windermere last Friday.

Mr Jurd explained that the meeting largely consisted of formalities but it was confirmed that Brian Gregory has been elected as the new chairman of the organisation.

Michelle had served as an RAF officer, flying Puma helicopters in various operations around the world, including the Mozambique flood response, and the Kosovo and Iraq campaigns. In both conflicts, she flew in the first wave of the helicopters over the border.

After her RAF career , she concentrated on family life, settling in Cumbria in 2007 with her husband, a former Army officer, and her two young daughters.

The ethos of the Trust has been designed to echo Michelle’s own ethos of living life to the full by providing adventure opportunities for young people.