A Pembrokeshire teenager who raised more than £200,000 to improve cancer care services at Withybush Hospital is Pembrokeshire’s youngest New Year’s Honours recipient ever.

Elyn (Elly) Neville has been awarded a BEM for services to charitable services to cancer patients and to cancer services in Pembrokeshire.

Elly is 13 years old and when she was just five and a half, raised £500 for the cancer ward at Withybush Hospital that cared for her father when he was receiving cancer treatment.

She is now the face of a fundraising appeal that has raised more than £210,000 for improvements to cancer services at Withybush Hospital and a further £16,500 for children’s services.

It all started with Elly’s Ward 10 Flag. A fundraising campaign run tirelessly by Elly and the Neville family over four years.

The appeal had enormous support from the local community, as well as many celebrities who helped bring the fundraising to this fantastic amount for the ward that treated Elly’s father, Lyn Neville after a bone marrow transplant in 2005.

Elly felt inspired to raise money to help refurbish the ward that helped her dad's recovery.

She initially wanted to buy cushions and rugs to improve the environment but it soon snowballed.

Ward 10 was refurbished and modernised in 2019 to provide a better purpose-built inpatient facility in which to care for designated oncology and haematology patients, and those with complex palliative care needs.

More than £500,000 of charitable donations contributed to the scheme from the health board’s Pembrokeshire Cancer Services Fund and Elly’s Ward 10 Flag Appeal.

Elly said: “It is amazing to be given a BEM and a big surprise. I am just really happy to have been able to help people who are going through cancer like my dad did.

“I am glad that what I have done for Withybush Hospital has helped people and hope that it continues to affect people positively.”

Elly’s Dad, Lyn added: “We are just so very proud of all that Elly has achieved. To raise £213,500 for the Ward 10 Cancer Ward and a further £16,500 for Children’s Services is amazing. For Elly to get recognition for what she has done for her community is brilliant and well deserved”