THE founders of a Hereford-based children's charity have been recognised by the Prime Minister for their 'outstanding' voluntary work.

Simon Tarplee and Wendy Tarplee Morris, co-founders of the Little Princess Trust, dug their way out of a snow-struck Hereford to travel to London where they received the Point of Light award from Prime Minister Theresa May.

The award recognises outstanding individual volunteers – people who are making positive changes in their communities – and is a way of the Prime Minister saying ‘thank you’ for their outstanding voluntary service.

The Little Princess Trust provides real hair wigs for children and young people who are suffering hair loss as a result of cancer and other medical conditions.

The couple co-founded the charity in 2006 in memory of their daughter Hannah who died from cancer in 2005.

They received their awards at the No.10 Downing Street Children’s Christmas party reception, where they were also joined by members of their own families.

In a personal letter to Simon, Prime Minister Theresa May said: “You should be very proud of inspiring thousands of people to donate their hair to this exceptional cause as well as the impact the Trust’s fundraising is having on research into childhood cancers.”

To Wendy, the Prime Minister wrote: “Your work helping source and create real hair wigs has transformed the young lives of child cancer patients, allowing them to look and feel more like themselves at an incredibly difficult time of their lives.”

Simon said: “I was so shocked to hear that Wendy and I were to receive the award which I am very proud to accept. The ‘Little Princess Trust’ is, of course, something very important to me. The thousands of children the charity has helped is a huge legacy to our daughter Hannah in whose name the charity was set up.”

Wendy added: “It came as a complete shock and I feel incredibly humbled to have been selected. I feel that it adds even further to our daughter’s legacy and I know that she would be very proud of the work that has been done in her memory.”

They said the trip to Downing Street was a brilliant experience and that it was 'very special' to receive such recognition, despite that not ever being their motivation for launching the charity.

Wendy added: “It was also lovely that both of our families got to be a part of the experience and the children had a fabulous time at the party. They even had a Santa's grotto for the children to visit and other characters like Paddington and Dennis the Menace.

"It was a little surreal to even be stood at the front door, let alone to go inside. They literally opened up all of the main rooms in number 10, including the famous 'White Room' and hall of fame staircase. We all had a fabulous day that we will always remember.”