When James Brown’s wife saw the letter from His Majesty’s service, she asked if he was going to jail. She had secretly nominated him for an honour. The 46-year-old dad received an MBE for services to Saving Lives Scotland and the community in Airdrie.
Brown started volunteering for Lifesavers, a blood bike charity that delivers vital medical supplies, during the pandemic. He had contracted life-threatening sepsis about nine years earlier while driving home. He blacked out, the car stopping on a grass verge. After seeing a nurse, he spent the next two and a half months in hospital.
“Sepsis survivor James Brown received an MBE for digitising a blood bike charity, among local heroes in King's Birthday Honours.”
“It turns out that I'd a small perforation in my bowel, everything was leaking to my insides, and I was very close to end stage with Sepsis,” he said. “I came out of hospital a couple of months later with a colostomy bag, not the person I am today… But I shouldn't have been here today, and that's purely down to those doctors and the domestics, the porters, volunteers that were in the hospital at the time. I very much doubt that the Lifesavers didn't have a hand in some of my samples or something going somewhere. To make somebody healthy you need a community, so when Covid hit, the charity asked for drivers, and I wasn't doing anything else, so I thought I can give a couple hours a week. Who knew a year and a half, two years later, I'd be deep in the trenches supporting them.”
Brown helped digitise the charity’s operations. His story is one of hundreds of everyday heroes recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours List. Prime Minister Keir Starmer praised people across the UK “quietly changing lives and strengthening their communities”.
“Their dedication shows how lasting change is built – through compassion, resilience and a commitment to others,” Starmer said. “It speaks to the decent, hopeful country we are proud to be, and on behalf of the whole nation, I want to say thank you.”
The list also includes recognisable names – Lionesses, Dame Helen Mirren, and rugby hero Kevin Sinfield – alongside a host of local volunteers. Football great Lou Macari leads the Scots honoured, with academic leaders, business figures and other volunteers also receiving awards.
Brown, reflecting on his honour, said he had no idea his wife had nominated him. “She asked if I was going to jail when she saw the envelope,” he said. “Little did I know.”