A PARISH councillor and volunteer for a multitude of community organisations Dorothy Kirk has been awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) for her services to Gunnislake and West Devon.

Former teacher Dorothy's community spiritedness began more than 40 years ago when she started the first playgroup in Gunnislake and then refounded the local Labour Party.

From there she became involved in campaigning, notably to stop any building on Foster's Field recreation area, improving road conditions after a fatal accident and getting the health centre built. At the same time she became the agent for Labour councillor Godfrey Smale, who was both Cornwall county councillor for Gunnislake and a member of the former Caradon District Council.

She was the chairperson of Gunnislake Forum for six years and one of the early trustees of the Calstock Development Trust. Under the umbrella of these organisations £500,000 was secured for the community for regeneration work, including the Woodland centre for the elderly, the waterfront at Calstock, a new traffic system in Gunnislake and the Oasis learning centre.

Dorothy stood as a Labour European parliamentary candidate for Cornwall and Plymouth in 1989 and 1994 and as Labour candidate for South East Cornwall in the general election of 1997.

A member of Calstock Parish Council for six years she is also now Labour Cornwall councillor for Gunnislake and Calstock.

From 1974 to 2000 she was a French and Spanish teacher at Tavistock College which she described as 'the best job in the world' and a teacher/governor for seven years. She has also been involved in the 'Talking Newspapers for the Blind' in Tavistock since 1978 and a trustee of the CAB.

Dorothy is a keen contributor to the Gunnislake Gateway newsletter with her historical anecdotes and co-wrote the book 'Turner in the Tamar Valley'. She is also a member of the Calstock Archive and a staunch supporter of the Tamar Valley Railway from Gunnislake to Plymouth.

Throughout the years she has remained committed to local causes and despite suffering breast cancer and lung cancer in 1998 and 2000 she still found the strength to help others.

She said:?'I was one of the lucky ones and for that I feel very grateful. Things go wrong in life but my motto is if you have a voice use it. There are so many people who don't or daren't or who can't.

'I feel tremendously privileged to have got what I have in life and to have worked at Tavistock College which is like a big family really.

'It is very nice to get an honour like this but I do not feel I deserve it more than anyone else. In this village (Gunnislake) there are so many people who do so much and are so unsung.'

Dorothy added that her grand-daughters, aged five, six and seven, were especially delighted that 'granny had got a medal'.

Ian Kirk, Dorothy's husband, said: 'Dorothy is highly intelligent, she cares about people and if anyone asks her to do anything she will do it. She does nothing for her own personal gain. I admire her greatly for that and she has energy in abundance.'