New Year Honours 2026: British Empire Medal for Cloughmills woman Yvonne

Yvonne Carson, who is Rural Health and Wellbeing Manager with Northern Health and Social Care Trust, was recognised with the British Empire Medal (BEM).

Having first trained as a nurse in the 1980s, Yvonne has been involved in health promotion work in the Trust area from the early 2000s.

The Cloughmills resident has since been engaged in a number of projects with a focus on rural issues and loneliness.

These included the Farm Families programme, which has provided health checks for over 28,000 people since it began in 2012.

And with loneliness increasingly becoming a growing public health concern even before Covid, Yvonne was instrumental in the establishment of four loneliness networks in the Northern Trust area.

She was also behind the development of resources for Trust staff in helping to identify and tackle loneliness.

Other projects ranged from setting up a rural men’s group in 2018 – a forerunner for the Rural Support ‘Plough On’ project – the Rural Melody ladies choir in the Moneymore area, supper clubs, and events celebrating rural women in Glarryford and Gleno.

In 2024, she was involved in the Trust’s Rural Health and Wellbeing conference in Ballymena.

The event aimed to aimed to shine a spotlight on challenges faced by rural communities, from geographical isolation to poor transport links.

Meanwhile, Yvonne is the founder of the Farmers’ Choir, a now Northern Ireland-wide initiative which since 2018 has brought farmers and rural dwellers together to enjoy singing and increase social opportunities.

Commenting on her award, Yvonne said she was “stunned” to receive the news of the honour in late November.

Since the list’s publication at the end of December, she has received numerous messages of congratulations. “I really didn’t expect the level of interest that there has been about it!” Yvonne said.

“I’m a rural girl at heart myself, so [my work] was always just about trying to put yourself in other people’s shoes and empathising with them.”

More than 50 people representing sport, local government and the community across Northern Ireland were recognised in the 2026 New Year Honours list.