A WOMAN who has spent the past 11 years helping lonely pensioners was yesterday made an MBE by the Princess Royal.

Christine Burden, 65, from Meadow Lane, East Oxford, set up the Sweet Memories Senior Citizen’s Club in Percy Street, for lonely older people.

Famed for greeting club members with a kiss and a hug, she received her MBE at Buckingham Palace.

She told the Oxford Mail she was “very nervous” about the occasion.

Between 70 and 80 people attend her club each week and enjoy music, coffee, outings and advice.

Mrs Burden went to the palace with her husband, Colin, and sons, Richard and Steven.

l For details of the other Oxfordshire residents, who received honours yesterday, see tomorrow’s Oxford Mail.