SHOCKED, touched and flabbergasted was the reaction of Mrs Hazel Thomas, when she discovered she had been awarded the MBE - on her 60th birthday.

Mrs Thomas, who lives in Bellamy Close, Watford, is a manager at Victoria House day care centre in Greenbank Road and was given the honour for her services to caring for the elderly mentally infirm.

She said: "Getting the award was made all the more special because I got it on my birthday on Saturday.

"I still can't believe it. I am still trying to find out exactly who put me forward for it.I don't know when we go to Buckingham Palace to get the awards and I am not sure yet who to take with me."

Mrs Thomas began working as a carer's assistant when she moved to Watford 27 years ago.

She said: "I was divorced with three children and needed a job. I just saw the ad in the paper and applied."

Mrs Thomas stayed in the caring profession permanently. In the late 1970s she completed a course at Cassio College to get a certificate for social services work and worked in a care centre in Vicarage Road, at a time when social services was exploring the different types of care for elderly people with mental illness such as dementia and Alzheimers.

The centre moved to a new purpose-built building called Victoria House four years ago. Mrs Thomas manages the centre, which can accommodate 25 people for day care.

The centre provides washing, eating and laundry facilities plus a garden and activities for its clients. Equally importantly it provides relief for the carers who look after their loved ones at home.

Mrs Thomas said: "I have always been passionate about the need to support the carer.

"Imagine having your loved one, with whom you still share a bed, not being able to recognise you. The carers do not it for money, they do it because they love their partner. We are here to give them respite."

Mrs Thomas said that she has got much out of her years in the caring profession but has recently become disillusioned after Victoria House was contracted out to the private sector by Hertfordshire County Council.

As a result it is now run as a profit-making organisation.

Mrs Thomas said: "We no longer have domestic staff so our staff have to spend time cleaning when they should be caring.

"I used to have a budget of £260,000, now I have to run across the road to the elderly person's home to borrow a stamp.

"I find it very distressing that we can no longer offer the same service we used to. I am losing faith in the system but getting the award has restored my faith a bit.

"My staff are wonderful - I could not have done anything without them - they are a fantastic team."