Tom and Primrose Drake from Kingswood were honoured by HRH Prince of Wales, President, WaterAid, with the Award for Outstanding Voluntary Contribution in recognition of their dedication in fund-raising and campaigning for WaterAid over 15 years, during which over 250 conferences and meetings have been addressed and £200,000 raised, saving or improving the lives of over 14,000 people in Africa and Asia.

Four years ago, the couple were invited by WaterAid, as paying guests, to experience first-hand, the difficulties of sanitation and safe water in Mali, West Africa. This proved to be a life-changing experience and since their visit have created awareness by talking to schools, faith groups, Women’s Institutes, Rotary clubs and other organisations about the work of WaterAid, raised £60,000 which has enabled over 4,000 people in Mali, one of the world’s poorest countries, to benefit from safe water, sanitation and hygiene education.

WaterAid (wateraid.org) over the last 30 years have provided safe water to over 15 million people and improved sanitation to 11 million people.

Rotary International within the UK (rotary.org) to date have contributed nearly £3 million, helping over 200,000 people with safe water and sanitation in the 28 countries in which WaterAid operate.

Tom and Primrose are both members of the Rotary Club of Ewell (ewellrotaryclub.org.uk), which meets at Cuddington Golf Club on Thursday evenings. They both have worked and continue to work, tirelessly in creating awareness of the problems of the lack of safe water and sanitation in the Developing World.

Based on information supplied by .