New Year Honours: Denise Lewis proud to be made a dame

Denise Lewis, who carried the Queen's Baton during the Commonwealth Games' opening ceremony, said she was delighted to be made a dame

Olympic gold medallist and Commonwealth Games England president Denise Lewis says she is "delighted and immensely proud" to be made a dame.

Lewis is among several members of the 2022 Birmingham Games' organising team to be recognised in the King's New Year Honours.

The organising committee chair, John Crabtree, has been knighted while chief executive Ian Reid has been made a CBE.

"It fills me with great pride," said Lewis, who grew up in Wolverhampton.

She added: "I'm delighted and immensely proud - this doesn't normally happen to people like me and I just think I am extremely honoured, extremely proud and it's right up there, I just can't wait."

The 50-year-old Buckinghamshire resident, who won heptathlon Gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, said the Games in Birmingham last summer surpassed all expectations.

"Birmingham really did come alive - they embraced the Games and it came just at the right time; the appetite for the nation just needed that sense of coming together," she explained.

Bethan Stimpson was awarded a British Empire Medal for her work in the Games' legacy project

Others involved with the Games to be honoured include Ian Metcalfe, chair of Commonwealth Games England, who has been made an OBE.

British Empire Medals (BEMs) have been awarded to two members of the Games' legacy team, Shah Begum and Bethan Stimpson.

Ms Stimpson, from Shrewsbury, put together Gen22 to help 16 to 24-year-olds from the West Midlands gain work experience at the event.

"I felt really strongly it was for people like me that wouldn't have been able to access other parts of the Games," she said.

Other honours recipients from Birmingham and the Black Country include:

• Actor David Harewood, from Birmingham - OBE for services to drama and charity

• Broadcaster and comedian Frank Skinner, from Smethwick - MBE for services to entertainment

• Bishop Derek Webley, co-chair Windrush Cross Government Working Group - OBE for services to the Windrush generation

• Kate Davidson, from Birmingham - MBE for services to bereaved people during the Covid-19 pandemic

• Barbara Beadman, from Stourbridge - MBE for services to the glass industry

• Foster carers Samina Qasim Iqbal and Javaid Iqbal, Birmingham Children's Trust - BEMs for services to fostering