A GRANDMOTHER has been recognised in the Queen's New Year's Honours list for her work with mental health.

Pauline Arksey, from Norton, near Worcester, was given an MBE for her 20 years of work with the National Schizophrenia Fellowship.

Mrs Arksey, aged 69, became involved with the charity after her son Paul became seriously ill with the disease.

She realised there was very little support for families of people with schizophrenia in Worcester, and used her contacts as a senior nurse tutor at Ronkswood Hospital to set up a support group in 1983.

The group still meets once a month in Bromsgrove, and offers support and advice to the families of people with severe mental illness.

While she was working in a development post for the NSF, Mrs Arksey was also responsible for starting up a host of services.

They have included phone lines, housing projects and work schemes for the mentally ill across the Midlands.

She was also responsible for obtaining large sums of money for mental health from the Government by meeting MPs and members of the House of Lords while she was vice-chairman of the national organisation of NSF.

In addition to all of her work for the mentally ill with the NSF, the grandmother of four, of Kohima Drive, also spent seven years as a non-executive director of South Birmingham Mental Health Trust, and set up the CRUSE bereavement scheme in the Faithful City.

Her main aim throughout the 20 years of her involvement was to make sure the families of patients, as well as patients themselves, are given the care they need.

"I hope we've made people realise that everyone with mental illness has parents, children, and other members of the family, and they all need support," she said.

"People with mental illness may not get back to work, and they may not be able to do everything they were once able to do, but they will be helped if their family is there for them," she explained.