Man raised near Limerick set to get top honour from Britain's King Charles III

A LOCAL man is set to receive one of the British empire’s top honours from King Charles.

Pete Wallroth, who was born and raised for his early life in Shannon Banks, has been given the title of an honorary Member of the British Empire (MBE).

Awarded for outstanding community service, an MBE is the third highest honour which can be bestowed on a citizen outside of damehoods and knighthoods.

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Pete, who lives in Glossop near Manchester, founded Mummy’s Star, a cancer support charity for pregnant women in England and Wales back in 2013, before extending it to Scotland and Ireland.

The father-of-two acted after his wife Mair, who was diagnosed with breast cancer while she was pregnant died in 2013 only 10 weeks after their son Merlin was born and when their daughter Martha was three.

Pete found out he was being given an honorary MBE on a beach in Mayo in the summer, while he was on holiday in the summer, with his now wife Nicola in whose mother hails from the area.

“An email came in from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. We had a bit of a laugh, saying, this is it, they are going to kick me back home,” laughed Pete, who left Limerick at eight.

“It was surreal to read it. It’s a lovely accolade to get. It’s not the reason you ever set out to do something. But it’s lovely somebody I have been working with clearly has felt the desire to put me forward.”