Charities receive King's Voluntary Service Award

Huddersfield charity Uniform Exchange is among the groups in West Yorkshire to have been honoured

A total of 12 West Yorkshire charities have been awarded The King’s Award for Voluntary Service for 2024.

The award is the highest a local voluntary group can receive in the UK and is equivalent to being appointed MBE.

Among the organisations to be acknowledged are Huddersfield charity Uniform Exchange, Nell Bank from Ilkley and Middleton Elderly Aid, based in Leeds.

Uniform Exchange founder and project director Kate France dedicated the award to the charity's 30 volunteers, saying: “They make a real, tangible difference to the quality of people’s lives".

'Relieved worry'

Uniform Exchange collects and redistributes school uniform for struggling families in Kirklees free of charge.

It was on course to help about 10,000 children in 2024, according to the charity.

A disabled single mum-of-four from Huddersfield who used the service said it had "relieved the most awful worry and financial burden from me".

“The fact I no longer had to buy that uniform meant my family budget stretched further and I had more in my bank account to put the heating on in winter and buy decent food for the children," she said.

She estimated the charity had helped save her "at least £5,000 over the last decade".

"To a low-income family like mine [that] is a massive amount of money," she said.

Volunteers restoring Farsley Rehoboth Burial Ground have also been awarded a King's Award for Voluntary Service

Other West Yorkshire charities to be recognised with a King's Award include:

• 5 Towns Veterans Support Hub CIC

• Outlookers

• Pontefract Civic Society

• Sikh Soldier Organisation

• The Crossroads Project

• The Friends of Farsley Rehoboth Burial Ground

• The Maurice Jagger Centre for the Disabled and Elderly

• Think Like a Pony

• Whiteknights Yorkshire Blood Bikes

Nationally, 281 organisations have received the King's Award for Voluntary Service this year.

Formerly known as The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service, the recognition was created in 2002 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee.

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