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Honours for Paralympian and girls' football coach

RachelDavies/PA A composite of two images. The first featuring Rachel Davis holding her daughter in her arms smiling at an amateur football pitch. The second of Amy Truesdale posing with her Paralympic gold medal clenched between her teeth. RachelDavies/PA
Football coordinator Rachel Davis and Paramlypian Amy Truesdale receive New Years Honours.

A grassroots women's football coach and a Paralympic taekwondo champion have been recognised in the New Year Honours list.

Rachel Davies, co-ordinator of girls football at Altrincham FC, has been awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) for growing the club's junior membership from fewer than 100 girls to close to 600 in the past six years.

The 33-year-old from Liverpool said she was "astonished" to receive the honour and said at first she asked "is this really for me?".

RachelDavies Rachel Davies, wearing a black waterproof coat, holds her young daughter, who is wearing a football strip, in her arms while the pair are stood together at a football pitch. Groups of people can be seen gathered behind a goal in the distance, under some trees with a row of terraced houses seen in the distance. RachelDavies
Rachel Davies has been described as a "fantastic ambassador for grassroots football"

Ms Davies found there were no other girls playing football when she was growing up, so she had to play with boys.

A bad injury in year 11 ended her football career, but she then started in a career in spots development, working her way into the setup at Altrincham FC.

She said there were only nine under 10s girls players when she joined the club, which now has hundreds of members and has enjoyed success in local leagues and cups.

"Those opportunities was never there when I was a kid, it was non-existent," she said.

"So for me to be able to give those young girls the opportunity that I never had with the development and pathway in place, it's phenomenal."

But away from the competition, Ms Davis said role was as much about "being a role model, councillor and a mentor" as many youngsters came to her "lacking confidence and struggling with their mental health".

The award of a BEM had left her "shocked", she said, but she added she felt it was deserved for the time and effort she put into "driving girl's football forward".

Reuters Amy Truesdale of Britain celebrates winning gold after her bout against Guljonoy Naimova of UzbekistanReuters
Amy Truesdale won gold at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris

Paralympic parataekwondo gold medallist Amy Truesdale from Chester, has been made an MBE for her services to the sport.

Truesdale, a triple world champion and four-time European champion in Para Taekwondo, said she was "deeply humbled and immensely grateful for the honour".

The 35-year-old was born without a left hand and forearm, and on the back of her bronze medal at Tokyo 2020 when the year the sport made its debut, she took gold in Paris earlier this year.

The MBE was "not only a recognition of my efforts and dedication to Taekwondo over the last 28 years but also a testament to the collective support, collaboration, and inspiration of so many incredible individuals around me", she said.

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