Morecambe woman receives MBE in Queen's Birthday Honours for services to international aid

Julia Brothwell has been honoured for her services to international aid.

The 58-year-old works in project management for the British Red Cross, and is their longest serving full-time international delegate.

Julia has been deployed to almost 40 operations, including earthquakes, warzones, disease outbreaks, bringing lifesaving aid to thousands of people.

Working in challenging, hostile and dangerous conditions, she has always performed to the highest standards of expertise, integrity and humanity.

Her commitment to the Red Cross is such that she has been willing to drop everything to head off to a new disaster zone.

Indeed, Julia had just returned from Ukraine when she learned of her honour.

She was in Kyiv working on contingency planning for a potential escalation of conflict when Russia invaded the country.

Her role quickly changed to one of international management, and she remained in Ukraine - firstly in Kyiv before switching to the south west when the capital became too unsafe - for two months before returning home.

"It was quite a scary time," Julia said. "After two months it was quite exhausting."

However, Julia now hopes to return later this month to continue her work.

Shortly after her return to Morecambe she received a letter from the Cabinet office about her MBE.

“It was completely out of the blue,” she said. "I don't know who put my name forward. It was a big surprise and feels quite surreal but very exciting.

"I think the fact that you are nominated by your peers makes it special - that the people you work with or for recognise something.

"I just regret that my parents aren't around to see it, it would have given them a real kick."

Julia has worked for the Red Cross since 1994, after being offered a role following a chance meeting in Cambodia, where she was doing voluntary work.

"I haven't looked back since," she said. "It's been a fascinating career and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.

"It's nice to think that what you are doing has helped someone's recovery but you never truly know the number of people you are helping.

"It's all done working alongside other teams, and a lot of good memories have come from that collaborative effort."

Julia was first deployed as a finance delegate in the nineties, but as her experience and expertise developed she moved into management and leadership, and now leads major aid operations, such as the Nepal earthquake in 2015 and the Bangladesh refugee crisis in 2019.

In Bangladesh she oversaw a massive effort to provide support to displaced people – almost a million people had fled from Myanmar and were living in incredibly cramped and basic conditions in Cox’s Bazar region.

A major risk was the coming cyclone season, which was feared to bring landslides and disease outbreaks; her mission was to help provide water and sanitation facilities to thousands of people to help prevent this.

When not on active deployments, she is a central feature of many other areas of work, helping train new delegates and using her experience to shape future planning.