THE King's New year's Honours list completed a double for a Dorchester family.

Julie Fry has received a British Empire Medal (BEM) in recognition of her services to education and health in Kenya.

The award matches that given to her husband, former Dorchester area police inspector Les Fry in 2022 for 30 years of voluntary work in the local community.

Julie, an NHS Administrator from Dorchester, got involved in charity work for Kenya around seven years ago where she joined a group of 20 people on a trip to Kenya, arranged by the Dorset Murungi Society based in Weymouth.

She was shocked to learn that girls were not attending school during their period weeks, as they had no sanitary provision.

In her return, she was determined to do something about the situation and started making sanitary towels for the girls.

Julie says: "The towels are made mainly of recycled making a very practical use of items that would otherwise end up in landfill." 

When she returned to the country in the following year, she had made enough sanitary towels and bags to give to 64 girls.

Each girl was given a drawstring bag with nine washable sanitary towels, five pairs of underwear, a small bag to take a clean sanitary towel to school and the soiled one home, soap to wash themselves and the towel.

And since then she has continued to help and support the young people in Kenya.

She added: "We must thank the groups of lovely people that have helped us with sewing sanitary towels, donating pants and materials. These include Dorset Rock Choir, Dorchester United Reform Church Sewing Group and the Women's Institutes of Wimborne and Frome. Without their help we could not have helped so many people."