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Mother & daughter both receive

 OBE in Queen’s birthday honours




 A Rochdale mother and daughter have both   Rochdale Technical College, then Hopwood Hall
 been awarded the Order of the British Empire   College as Head of English.
 in the Queen’s Birthday Honours this year for
 their respective services to community projects   Debbie moved to London to join the Civil Service
 and “exceptional leadership and support” for the   in 1999 before later joining Spirit.
 UK Government during humanitarian crises.
 Amanda, who lived in Rochdale until she left
 A former teacher in Rochdale, Debbie Lye, Chief   for university at age 18, played a leading role
 Executive of the Spirit of 2012 charity, and her   in designing the response to one of the world’s
 daughter, Amanda McLoughlin, who led the UK’s   worst refugee crises.
 response to the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon,
 received their honours on the same day in what   The former St Cuthbert’s pupil was the Head of
 Debbie described as “an amazing coincidence.”  the Department for International Development
 (DFID)’s office in Beirut between 2013 and 2017
 Debbie took on the role of founding Chief   where she led the UK’s response to the Syrian
 Executive at Spirit in 2013, after spearheading   refugee crisis in Lebanon, which has seen 1.5
 the design and delivery of the London 2012   million Syrian refugees take refuge there since
 international sport and social legacy programme,   the Syrian war began.
 which reached 25 million children and young
 people in 20 countries worldwide.  Through Amanda’s engagement, Lebanon
 presented a comprehensive and ambitious
 After reading English at Cambridge, Debbie   plan for supporting refugees at the 2016 Syria
 returned to Rochdale where she married and   Conference in London, the basis for international
 had three children, including Amanda, teaching   support and improvement in refugee situations.
 at several schools including Oulder Hill,
 Balderstone and Falinge Park before moving to   She is now studying Arabic full-time in Lebanon.









































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