A RETIRED GP from West Quantoxhead said she “couldn’t believe it” when she found out she would be receiving an MBE.

Dr Winifred Anderson has been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for her ‘services to the communities of West Quantoxhead and West Somerset.’

She said: “I am very happy to have been awarded but also very surprised. It is a great honour but I don’t want to make too much fuss about it.

“I’m very pleased; I never expected to receive something like this when I started out as a GP many years ago.”

The 89-year-old only retired last year after graduating from Birmingham University in the 1940s where she trained to become a doctor.

She added: “I’ve been working since just before 1950 and I have loved every second of it.

“I’ll never forget saying to my mother as I child that I wanted to be a doctor when I grew up and somehow picked it up while at university.

I feel very lucky to have done it. “

Sometimes it was frustrating – the rules and regulations were always changing like most things – but it was very rewarding and it always brought me great joy.”

Dr Anderson, who is from the Birmingham area, has worked all across England but said Somerset always had a special place in her heart.

“We used to come on holiday here when I was younger and I always had some link to Somerset.

“I’ve never regretted moving here.

It is a lovely place to live and my first husband was a farmer here so it was very interesting being a farmer’s wife and a GP at the same time.

“I’ll be 90 in January but I still do what I can and my husband, Gordon, and I read for our local church. I think he is very proud of me.”