A couple who founded a children’s cancer charity in their daughter’s memory, and the leader of the first crew of Royal Navy submariners to row the Atlantic, were among those honoured at St James’s Palace for the first time in four years.
Abbie’s Army founders Amanda and Ray Mifsud and Lieutenant Commander Hugo Mitchell-Heggs were made MBEs by the Princess Royal on Thursday.
The investiture ceremony was held at the palace for the first time since August 2021 as Windsor Castle, where they usually take place, is hosting the German state visit this week.
Mr and Mrs Mifsud, from Ashford, Kent, founded Abbie’s Army in 2012 after their six-year-old daughter Abbie died of a diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) brain tumour, an aggressive brain cancer found in children.
The charity funds medical research into the as yet incurable cancer, raises awareness of the condition, and supports affected children and their families.
It has provided more than £1.8 million of funding for research projects, including at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London and the Institute of Cancer Research.
Mr Mifsud said: “It’s quite overwhelming, really, because the reason we’re here is because of our daughter, and because she isn’t here.”
Mrs Mifsud said: “Whenever you start a charity you don’t expect any kind of acknowledgement but the recognition just feels huge today.
“To be standing here, 14 years after Abbie’s death, we’re here because she was here.”
The couple said the Princess Royal was “lovely” and that she spoke to them about their charity work, keen to know if it had helped them to come to terms with Abbie’s death.
Mr and Mrs Mifsud took Abbie to the doctor after she started to feel “wobbly”.
Later the same day, Abbie was then taken to hospital for an MRI scan, and her parents were told there was nothing more the doctors could do to help her.
She died five months later.
Mrs Mifsud said: “It’s so overwhelming, so I find it such a privilege that we get to help other people in that position – they’re in their darkest time and it’s such a privilege.”
Abbie’s Army has no paid staff and is powered entirely by volunteers and families who are affected by DIPG.
Mr and Mrs Mifsud said clinical trials and new research being conducted into the cancer gives them hope for the future.
Mrs Mifsud said: “Being around so long, being embedded in that patient community, and also in the research community, that’s also a very privileged position because it’s rare, and so people tend to connect quite globally, not just families in the UK.
“We really get to see the gaps where the provision is needed and what people would like to see, so we can try and bridge those deficits and push and pursue.”
Lieutenant Commander Hugo Mitchell-Heggs, who was made an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List this year, said it was “really special” to be honoured at the “extraordinary” palace.
He said: “They make you feel very special, from getting out of the black cab to standing in front of the Princess (Royal), it was really, really nice.
“I’m a submariner, so we (the Princess Royal and I) spoke a little bit about the submarine service, about people and the challenges of my community. She was very congratulatory.”
He added: “In the Royal Navy, we love her, she’s very dear to the Royal Navy community.”
Lt Cdr Mitchell-Heggs said he discovered ocean rowing while recovering from an injury, and decided to lead a team of Royal Navy submariners in an attempt to row across the Atlantic in 2018.
Several Royal Navy teams have completed the row since, raising more than £1 million for naval and Royal Marine charities.
“At the time, the submarine community was really challenged by long deployments, and we were starting to see men and women of all ages struggle with conversations around mental health,” he said.
“Doing it that first time and raising all that money for charity inspired my second Atlantic crossing a few years later, after lockdown, and it’s paved the way to create a long-term, enduring movement for inspiration within the Navy community.”
Also among those made MBE was Natasha Jones, who created history as the first British female boxer to qualify for the Olympics, in London in 2012.
