Fareham woman thrilled by Queen's Honour list award for securing millions of items of PPE for Transport for London

Now Sharon Sear has been been honoured by royalty for her hard work helping protect the lives of others.

Catisfield resident Sharon joined Transport for London as a procurement manager six years ago – and never thought she would be responsible for securing vital supplies during a global pandemic.

Earlier in the year, the 52-year-old realised the service was just weeks away from running out of PPE, necessary for staff to safely undertake maintenance work.

Thanks to her quick action to secure new suppliers, Sharon ensured millions of face coverings and hundreds of thousands of hand sanitiser bottles were in place to keep the capital moving.

She has been named as a recipient of the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list.

The mum-of-three said: ‘I was absolutely thrilled when I found out – I’m really, really pleased. It’s been a very challenging year.’

Sharon said there had been a very real risk of train services grinding to a halt due to equipment shortages.

She added: ‘Usage was huge and stock became very low.

‘Everyone was struggling but I was lucky enough to see it early.

‘Trains would have stopped because maintenance work wouldn’t have been able to take place.

‘It was frenetic. That’s when you find out how good your team is – luckily my team was really good.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

You can subscribe here for unlimited access to Portsmouth news online - as well as fewer adverts, access to our digital edition and mobile app.

Our trial offer starts at just £2 a month for the first two months.