LONG-serving Crymych firefighter Euros Edwards has been awarded a British Empire Medal in the King’s New Year Honours List.

The award is in recognition of an extraordinary career in the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service stretching way back to 1979.

Crymych Fire Station has been described as ‘at the heart of the community providing a first-class service to the local area’.

In recent years, Mr Edwards – Watch Manager at Crymych – has warned repeatedly of the need to recruit more retained firefighters to rural stations, arguing that ways need to be found to incorporate family life with work life and the service.

Cllr John Davies, vice-chair of the Mid and West Wales Fire Authority, said: “This is national recognition which is richly deserved. Euros represents a rare breed within the retained service who has devoted a lifetime of service in keeping his local community safe.

“Forty-four years of responding to his communities’ hour of need, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days of the year says it all.

“I speak on behalf of all Preseli inhabitants in congratulating Euros for being the most worthy of recipients.”

Brynhoffnant businesswoman Shann Jones – who along with husband Richard runs their business Chuckling Goat from the family farm – receives an MBE for services to charity and to Innovation in Wales.

“I feel a bit like a rugby player who has scored the winning try,” she told the Tivyside.

“While I’m the one lucky enough to have crossed the line, the whole team – including my husband – have played a part in putting me into such a position where I was able to make that vital score!

“I’m originally from Texas and had to work to become a British citizen be-cause this is my home of choice.

“So to have received such an award is very, very moving.”

With no previous business experience or financial funding, the couple sold Richard’s motorcycle to buy bottles for their goats milk kefir when starting their business on their farmhouse kitchen table in 2014.

Shann developed her passion for gut health science when using kefir to save Richard’s life from a superbug MRSA infection.

Together Richard and Shann – author of a series of best-selling books on gut health – used that knowledge to create their acclaimed business.

They were joined by several of their children and today the family business produces the best kefir in the world, winner of the World Dairy Innovation Awards 2022.

They have also developed a Microbiome Test in partnership with Cambridge University.