New Year Honours 2021: Shrewsbury rower dedicates MBE to father

Kelda Wood said she would like to dedicate the MBE to her father

An adventurer says she heard she would be made an MBE just minutes before finding out she had breast cancer.

Kelda Wood, 47, from Shrewsbury, became the first solo adaptive rower to cross the Atlantic in a 3,000-mile challenge.

The MBE recognises her work with her charity Climbing Out, which helps young people who have suffered life-changing mental or physical trauma.

She said finding out about the honour, led to "a crazy day of very mixed emotions".

"I found a lump in my breast and I was going into the hospital that afternoon to get the results from that. Fifteen minutes before I left, I got the email through about the MBE," she said.

"So it was all great and a jolly moment and then an hour later, I was sat in hospital being told I actually had breast cancer."

'Crack on'

She said news about the MBE helped her deal with the diagnosis, which will mean she has to have a mastectomy, adding she remained "realistic and positive".

Ms Wood said she wanted to dedicate the MBE to her father, who died 11 weeks before she found out about the honour.

Kelda Wood crossed the finish line after rowing 3,000 miles in 76 days

"He was always very quiet and reserved, but he really showed me how to be the person I wanted to be," she said.

"I would have loved for him to know I received an MBE and I hope it would have made him proud."

Ms Wood has had restricted movement in her left leg since a bale of hay weighing more than a tonne fell on top of her in 2002, ending her dreams of becoming an Olympic horse rider.

Since then she has retrained as an outdoor instructor, has represented Great Britain as a member of the GB paracanoe squad and climbed Aconcagua, the highest peak in South America.

In February 2019, she completed a 76-day solo row across the Atlantic, from Canary Islands to Antigua.

She has raised more than £50,000 for Climbing Out.

Other honours recipients from Shropshire include:

• Sarah Clarke, 63, from Market Drayton, a lead nurse, is appointed MBE for services to nursing and the Covid-19 response

• Gloria Beharrell, 82, is awarded the British Empire Medal for charitable services after she raised in excess of £145,000 for a single cause

• John Maclean, 86, is awarded the British Empire Medal for services to the community after he worked on oil tankers for the last 25 years

• Patricia Jane Sharpe, 60, is awarded the British Empire Medal, for services to British Gymnastics, she has been a trampoline coach for 40 years

• Roland Wycherley, the chair of Shrewsbury Town Football Club, is appointed MBE for services to the community in Shrewsbury