6:50am Wednesday 31st December 2008
Adventurer Rosie Swale Pope is off on her travels again in 2009 - to meet the Queen to receive the MBE.
The 62-year-old grandmother, who returned to her home town of Tenby in August after an epic five-year trek around the world, features in the 2009 New Year's Honours List for her charitable services.
"I'm extremely surprised and delighted," said Rosie. "It's a very great honour, but it really belongs to everyone who has shown me such magnificent support, including my dear friend Ann Rowell and the mayor of Tenby, Sue Lane, who I know put my name forward."
Click here for a video of Rosie's return to Tenby
Rosie was already the veteran of a round-the-world sail and numerous marathons, including one across the Sahara Desert, when she left Tenby on her 57th birthday for her 21,000 mile journey.
She did so with the aim of raising awareness of prostate cancer after the death of her husband, Clive, and also to champion the cause of orphans cared for by the Kitzeh community in Russia.
Last New Year's Eve saw her inching her way through snowbound terrain in northern Canada, and thinking wistfully of the lively celebrations taking place in Pembrokeshire.
"So it will be particularly special to be home in Tenby to see in 2009, and I'm looking forward to being out in town and enjoying the fireworks," said Rosie, who last Friday was the figurehead for the town's traditional Boxing Day swim.
She is currently 24 chapters into the book she is writing on her trans-globe journey - 'Just a Little Run Around the World' -, which is due for publication in 2009. "And then there are lots of things I want to do for the community, to give something back to Tenby and Pembrokeshire," she said. "There is something about being back in the Welsh air that makes you feel that your life is just beginning."
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