IT was a red letter day for Georgie Duncan when she received the British Empire Medal granted to her in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List from Rear Admiral Mike Gregory, Lord Lieutenant of Dunbartonshire.

The honour was presented to the well-known Dumbarton woman on Friday, September 19 just a few months after Beanfeast, her Scottish charity fund, broke through the £100,000 mark Georgie, a farmer’s daughter from Fahan, near Buncrana, Co Donegal, was accompanied to the ceremony at Kilmardinny House in Bearsden by her son, William, her sister, Marjorie Nicol, and her friend, Desmond Armstrong, from Londonderry in Northern Ireland.

Sheriff Simon Pender joined lawyers and court staff from Dumbarton’s courts as deservedly proud Georgie was presented with her medal from the Queen.

Deputy Lord Lieutenant Owen Sayers said the honour was presented in recognition of the work Georgie had done for the Children’s Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS).

Georgie has worked with Beanfeast, the voluntary group which supplies a café service to court staff and witnesses, which she has run for 15 years.

Much of the money raised has gone to making life more comfortable for the young patients in the state-of-the-art Robin House hospice at Balloch.

But this year that was extended to take in other deserving local charities.

A member of St Augustine’s Scottish Episcopal Church in Dumbarton High Street, she has decided to keep going with the charity work.

She said: “I could not do this work without the help of my dedicated band of volunteers.” She was voted Dumbarton’s Citizen of the Year in 2010 and is actively involved also in helping elderly people in the community as a member of the Senior Citizens’ Welfare Committee.