A homeworker has spoken of his pride after being invited to a Buckingham Palace garden party in recognition of his charity and community work.
Norry Ascroft, an agent for the Travel Village Group, received an invitation to one of The Queen’s exclusive garden parties, which are held to acknowledge public service and celebrate people who have made a positive impact in their community.
He received the invite in 2020, but the event was postponed for two years due to the pandemic. He finally attended the garden party in May, alongside his wife Heather who is also a homeworker for TVG.
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He said: “I was totally surprised when I received the invitation in the post as I didn’t expect it. I still don’t know who nominated me so I can’t thank them for doing so.
“The day was absolutely amazing. Prince Charles and Camilla were there alongside some other royals and celebrities, although the people I found most interesting were the other normal people who had been invited.
“I found it inspiring to hear about the amazing work so many of them have done in their communities.”
Ascroft became a homeworker in 2021, but has spent most of his career working as a corporate trainer. Alongside that, he has dedicated much of his free time to supporting children’s charities, including Variety Charity and Aiming Higher.
He has also worked with schools to teach children, parents and teachers about the dangers of bullying and has written a book on the subject.
“I was reading the newspaper one day and saw a devastating story about a teenager who had committed suicide because of cyberbullying, which was the third story I’d read where that had happened in as many weeks,” he said.
“It really motivated me to use my human behaviour and development training to go into schools and speak to children, teachers and parents about bullying so I began doing assemblies.
“I then created a digital presence and put together some basic video training for teachers and did a social media campaign highlighting the dangers of bullying, as well as wrote a book.
“Phil Nuttall, chief executive of TVG, sponsored my campaign which was amazing, he has been so supportive of my work.”
He added: “I haven’t done all of that for the recognition, but it was lovely to receive the invite to The Queen’s garden party. It has motivated me to continue to try to help people.”