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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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