Autumn 2019Mother & daughter both receive OBE in Queen’s birthday honours

A Rochdale mother and daughter have both been awarded the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours this year for their respective services to community projects and “exceptional leadership and support” for the UK Government during humanitarian crises.

A former teacher in Rochdale, Debbie Lye, Chief Executive of the Spirit of 2012 charity, and her daughter, Amanda McLoughlin, who led the UK’s response to the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon, received their honours on the same day in what Debbie described as “an amazing coincidence.”

Debbie took on the role of founding Chief Executive at Spirit in 2013, after spearheading the design and delivery of the London 2012 international sport and social legacy programme, which reached 25 million children and young people in 20 countries worldwide.

After reading English at Cambridge, Debbie returned to Rochdale where she married and had three children, including Amanda, teaching at several schools including Oulder Hill, Balderstone and Falinge Park before moving to Rochdale Technical College, then Hopwood Hall College as Head of English.

Debbie moved to London to join the Civil Service in 1999 before later joining Spirit.

Amanda, who lived in Rochdale until she left for university at age 18, played a leading role in designing the response to one of the world’s worst refugee crises.

The former St Cuthbert’s pupil was the Head of the Department for International Development (DFID)’s office in Beirut between 2013 and 2017 where she led the UK’s response to the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon, which has seen 1.5 million Syrian refugees take refuge there since the Syrian war began.

Through Amanda’s engagement, Lebanon presented a comprehensive and ambitious plan for supporting refugees at the 2016 Syria Conference in London, the basis for international support and improvement in refugee situations.

She is now studying Arabic full-time in Lebanon.