Geoff from Asda Wisbech receives BEM for his lockdown support

A huge well done to our Wisbech home shopping driver Geoff Norris who's been awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen's Birthday Honours for everything he's done to help the local community during the last few months.

Geoff, who's 53, was nominated for an honour after he arranged for his team to deliver to and look after vulnerable and elderly people and organised a surprise 90th birthday treat for an elderly customer who was self-isolating on her own on her big day.

Geoff says the honour came as a massive shock.

He said: "I'm absolutely gobsmacked to be honest. I did not have a clue at all. When the honours people got in touch with me I thought it was a joke at first, a wind up! I then checked through the email and saw a form to fill in for acceptance so I thought maybe it is real. Then I saw it was from the Cabinet Office and realised it's not a joke!"

Geoff, who's married to Vanessa and has a 22-year-old daughter Anna, said: "We never, ever expected anything like this. My wife and daughter were as shocked as I was.

"There were a lot of people out there who were in need and couldn't get anything and I knew I had to do something to help. Some of them were in tears. It wasn't just me; my wife and daughter were taking phone calls, and a lot my colleagues at Asda helped too. They were fantastic."

Read more about Geoff and his colleagues helping elderly and vulnerable people with their shopping here.

It's nice to get recognition, but I did not expect anything like this. As far as I'm concerned there are a lot more deserving people out there than me."

Store manager Matt Morris said: "When I first heard about it I just thought 'Wow that's amazing'.

"It's astronomical what Geoff has done for the community and getting the honour is fully deserved. Geoff's got such a great buzz and energy about him that I'm not surprised that he's been honoured."