A KILWINNING woman will receive an MBE after being included in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Evelyn Aitken, owner of Fergushill Riding Stables, will be given the honour for services to Equestrianism and Riding for the Disabled in North Ayrshire.

A delighted Mrs Aitken told the Herald she was thrilled to be given the honour for something she’s passionate about and that can help the community.

She said: “I’m absolutely amazed and really a bit overawed to be honest.

“It’s such an amazing privilege to even be considered for something like that.

“I had to read the letter about six times before it got into my head. “I’m just absolutely thrilled.

“I got the letter two weeks ago but you can’t tell anybody. “It was very hard to keep something like that a secret!

“It’s just such a privilege that people have thought enough to recommend me for this, I feel very honoured.

“A great thanks to all our supporters, we couldn’t do this if we didn’t have such fantastic clients.

“With the riding for the disabled which is part of the reward, a lot of it is volunteers .

“Without all these amazing people you couldn’t do these jobs, so on behalf of all of them I’m so grateful.

“Over the last 52 years we’ve been going we’ve raised over £50,000 for various charities.”