Queen's 2012 New Years Honours List ANNOUNCEMENT on Sat 31st Dec 2011
Saturday 31st December 2011 marks the day that Step-Father of Daniel De-Gale and Co-founder and Chief Executive of leading UK Leukaemia charity, African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust (ACLT), Orin Cadogan-Lewis, is awarded with an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen's 2012 New Years Honours List by the Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary in recognition For services to Healthcare.
The list published on Saturday 31st December 2011 recognises outstanding achievement and service across the whole of the United Kingdom. The vast majority of the awards go not to stars of sport, stage and screen but to extraordinary people who are making a real difference and contribution to their community through volunteering, fundraising, social action and philanthropy.
Orin Lewis said: "I am very proud and delighted to be awarded this most prestigious honour by Her Majesty the Queen for my services to Healthcare in Britain and I feel very honoured to accept it on behalf of my children, mother, family, and everyone associated with the groundbreaking and life saving work of the ACLT.
There are numerous reasons why my 2011 will undoubtedly be a year to look back on and rejoice as this award caps off an amazing year, where my "Soul Mate" Beverley De-Gale received 3 major awards including the OBE at Windsor Castle and also includes the successful Save the ACLT appeal where over £120,000 was raised by the general public. It is also is the perfect way to start the new year of 2012.
The long Journey
However, to fully understand why and how I have arrived at this most monumental moment in my life, it is necessary to go back to the start of the journey when things were somewhat different.
Looking way back I did not know what I wanted to be when I was growing up, however I was rationally comfortable with my 9 to 5 day job of being a IT Project and Operations Manager and monitoring and controlling multi million pound budgets along with managing hundreds of working men. Topping that was the 2 proudest days of my life, being there for the births of my sons Lutalo and Jelani.
However, I just knew that there was something more important that I would have to be doing in my life rather than being an Operations Manager. I just did not know what? Way back when I first met Beverley and Daniel (soon after he was diagnosed with Leukaemia) I could never have imagined the journey that fate and life has taken me on. Unbeknown, I knew Beverley's brother and sister very well via close family and mutual friends and our paths had crossed on a few occasions, but we never noticed or knew of each other. Our lives were obviously meant to go off in different directions until the right time had come.
It is now obvious that Daniel was the catalyst that brought us together. He was the light that shone and illuminated the direction of my life. He gave me the 3rd greatest and proudest day of my life when he had his Bone Marrow Transplant.
What I did not realise was that all of the training during my work life was actually preparing me for what I am now doing. That is waking up every morning and going to work every day (feeling that I have the best job in the world) with the knowledge and great feeling that I am in a position to motivate and inspire a total stranger to stop, and listen to me and then to go on to decide to register as a potential lifesaving donor in order to hopefully save another unknown person's life somewhere around the world. Along with the vibrant and upbeat joy and laughter that my "Soul Mate" (Ms Beverley De-Gale OBE) brings to my life, it just does not get any better.
However life is all about Joy and Pain and it would have been so much more perfect if our beloved Daniel was still physically here with us, though it fills our hearts that we know Daniel will be looking down on us both, punching his fist happily in the air.
Having recruited tens of thousands of new bone marrow (580 to 36,000), blood and organ donors from the hardest to reach communities and in turn directly saving lives (32) in the UK and abroad, it does fill me with joy that our efforts have been recognised and is held in such high regard.
Thanks to to so many supporters
My deepest thanks and gratitude goes out to all of the many individuals (especially our loyal and fantastic small team of ACLT staff and volunteers), communities at large, organisations, media, donors and families of patients who have supported me and the ACLT in our never ending quest to educate, motivate, inspire, empower and influence individuals to step forward and commit to becoming potential lifesavers.
Special thanks and love to my Mum, Dad, brothers and sisters, Beverley's brothers and sisters and Daniel's donor, Doreene Carney, for their support especially during the saddest episode of this journey, the loss of Daniel.
Finally, it is due to the undiluted love and support of my beloved children Lutalo, Jelani, my beautiful step-daughter Ms Dominique De-Gale, and of course the one person who has always believed in me, Beverley, that I have been able to achieve and make a difference to someone in need.
Thank you deeply for all of your past, present and future ongoing support. We still believe in miracles! How high can we go? How far can we reach? Can we do it? Together we can make it.
In closing it is appropriate to quote the lyric "Let's all Celebrate and have a good time" by Kool and The Gang. And to finish by using Daniel's favourite phrase, because this great young man would just simply say GOOD TIMES".
But hey... there is no time to bask and reflect in our past and present glories. There is major work to be done, so let's get started.
Ok Bye
Orin Lewis, OBE
