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King honours Pink Ladies' tractor run founders

Zoe Applegate & Jenny Kirk
BBC News, Norfolk
Jenny Kirk/BBC John Chapman is smiling at the camera and leaning on a red tractor decorated with pink ribbons and flowers in a barn. He is wearing a checked shirt and jeans. Annie Chapman is standing the other side of the tractor and is smiling. She is wearing a light pink polo shirt that says Ladies' Road Run.Jenny Kirk/BBC
John and Annie Chapman have helped to raise more than £1.2m for a cancer charity with their Pink Ladies' Tractor Road Run

A couple who have raised more than £1.2m for a cancer charity said it was a "huge honour" to be recognised by the King.

Annie Chapman, 83, and her husband John, 74, have been appointed MBE in the King's Birthday Honours list for their services to fundraising.

The pair, who live near Pulham Market, Norfolk, set up the Pink Ladies' Tractor Road Run more than two decades ago.

"It's a huge honour to have, but it's one we like to share... it's teamwork," said Mrs Chapman.

Jenny Kirk/BBC Mrs Chapman is smiling at the camera and wearing her Ladies' Road Run polo shirt. She is sitting at the wheel of a tractor and there are farm buildings and a field behind her.Jenny Kirk/BBC
Tractor fan Annie Chapman decided she needed a challenge after retiring

"We couldn't do it without a team of all sorts of people.

"It was just going to be a one-off bit of fun."

Each year a group of women take tractors festooned with pink decorations and travel in convoy around a 20-mile (32km) route of south Norfolk and north Suffolk.

Money is raised for Cancer Research UK, and used to fund work in breast cancer developments.

The fundraiser was launched when the couple, who were of tractor clubs and fans of vintage models, decided to set themselves a challenge over a bottle of wine when Mrs Chapman retired.

Mr Chapman said he was "surprised" and "delighted" at the honour but also appreciated, like his wife, that it was a team effort.

"On reflection, I thought 'What a wonderful recognition of the event,'" he said.

"[It is] not a personal thing so much as a recognition of the event and all the people who help us and make it work."

Jonathan Slack A convoy of tractors on a tree-lined dirt track. The tractors are in convoy and decorated with bows, ribbons and flowers. A woman in the first tractor is waving at the camera. Jonathan Slack
The annual event sees female tractor drivers set off from an airfield near Diss

The next event will be held on 6 July when 191 tractors will tour the countryside, setting off from Thorpe Abbotts airfield, near Diss.

The procession of pink tractors attracts scores of spectators along the route, and the in the couple's closest town of Harleston is something they find particularly heart-warming.

"It's quite an emotional trip - you can't get through there without choking up," said Mrs Chapman.

"People are just so ive."

The couple are among 19 people in the county to be recognised in the King's Birthday Honours.

Other Norfolk recipients include Dr Christine Counsell, of Attleborough, who has been appointed OBE for services to education; David Case, of Diss Heritage Triangle Project, appointed MBE for his services to the community, as has Sheelagh Redpath, of Great Yarmouth, for her services to netball.

The Birthday Honours are awarded by the King following recommendations by the prime minister, senior government ministers and of the public.

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