The Fan Charity, a group of volunteers based in south Wales, has been honoured with The Queen’s Award for voluntary service, the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK.

Representatives of Fan will go and collect the award later this summer, and two lucky members will be attending a garden party at Buckingham Palace next year as part of the award.

The group is being honoured for providing a social service in its community and beyond. Members meet up every week to chat and socialise, creating a space where people can be open and honest.

Before the pandemic 38 Fan (Friends And Neighbours) groups met in person every week, mainly in south Wales and some further afield.

Since the lockdown they have continued meeting virtually instead.

Omima said: “It is a great pleasure to have a group of friendly people sharing talk, thoughts and nice feelings. This has softened the long hard days during lockdown.”

Brian and Zahra from Fan also said the group helped them deal with depression and stay connected within the community

Meeting virtually has also meant that the charity has been able to welcome participants from across the globe including Brazil, South Korea, Japan, Bahrain, Zambia, France, Germany and Spain.

Ian Thomson, chairman, board of trustees of Fan said: “On behalf of the trustees I am delighted that Fan has been recognised with this wonderful award. During the lockdown period and still today our work to reduce isolation within communities by connecting people and making them feel less alone is vital to many.

"We must thank our generous funders the Welsh Government, Foyle Foundation, the Garfield Weston Foundation, National Lottery Community Fund, Track 2000 and the Tudor Trust."

For more information about the group and their weekly meet ups on Zoom visit their website here.