After 64 years of fundraising for leading Armed Forces charity Poppyscotland, Janet Gillespie has been awarded a British Empire Medal in the New Year Honours.

Mrs Gillespie spent more than 60 years as the Scottish Poppy Appeal Area Organiser for Crossmichael and Parton in Dumfries and Galloway, having begun selling poppies in 1952. In addition to ensuring her local area always had poppies and tins each November, Janet also opened her garden to the public to show off a mass of snowdrops, raising even more for Poppyscotland in the process.