A High Peak woman has been recognised in the Queen's Birthday honours list with an MBE for her services to charity. 

Victoria Abbott-Fleming, from Chinley, founded a national charity, Burning Nights CRPS Support, to aid those diagnosed with the poorly understood condition Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. 

When she was notified of the award Victoria didn’t believe it at first.

“It was a complete shock. It came by email about a month ago and, you know, how many strange emails you can get, I wondered if it was real.

“I am really proud of the award, not just for me, but for what the charity has achieved in just seven years.” 

Victoria (pictured) hopes the MBE will help them raise awareness of the condition.

“I want to bring CRPS out of the dark and into the light," she said. 

“It has been in the dark for too long and we have seen since we started there are more people diagnosed with it and it is being recognised that bit earlier.” 

CRPS can cause a person to experience persistent severe and debilitating pain. It may develop after an injury or surgery for example, but the pain is out of proportion with the severity of the initial injury. 

The charity saw a massive 156 per cent rise in service requests during lockdown, including a rise in the number of calls from patients with suicidal thoughts. 

To meet the increasing need for support they were able to recruit more volunteers, many of whom have been furloughed, and expanded the services they provide.

Fortunately, the vast majority of volunteers are continuing to provide support, although they have returned to work. 

To find out more about the charity, visit www.burningnightscrps.org. 

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