A GRANDMOTHER who took up dancing to help her walk after a childhood accident has been named in the New Year's Honours List.
Teacher Margaret Charlwood, 77, has been awarded a British Empire Medal for her services to exercise.
It completes an amazing turnaround for the Horley resident who was run over at the age of six.
"It was such a shock to find out I had been nominated," she told the Mirror. "At first I thought it was a parking fine. I had to keep it a secret from everyone. When I could eventually tell my family I made my son Richard read them all the letter."
Mrs Charlwood was knocked down by a lorry in 1941. After using dance as a form of rehabilitation, by the age of 18 she was running her own dance school.
In 1968 she joined Medau, which offers dance and movement classes, and has taught with the company ever since.
After she organised Medau's 25th anniversary at the Royal Albert Hall in 1977, she was asked to help choreograph and coach the Great Britain rhythmic dance team.
"We sort out what they're going to wear and the choreography," she said. "In that sense my dance training really helps. It's strange because I don't think I would have gone down the route to dancing if the accident hadn't happened."
Mrs Charlwood will receive her medal – an honour which was reinstated in 2012 to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee – at a local event in Surrey before going to a garden party at Buckingham Palace later this year.
But it will not be her first visit to the royal household, having represented Medau at a reception in 2000 for people who had helped promote sport.
"It was wonderful," she said. "We were presented to the Queen. I am looking forward to going back."
Mrs Charlwood, who has five children with her husband David, 80, also previously worked as curriculum manager for PE and movement at East Surrey College.
The grandmother of seven has not slowed down and still teaches eight classes a week. But she admits the whole attitude towards dancing has changed in recent years.
"Originally it was all done to the piano," she said. "In this country we are not as well known for dancing because not enough people do the training.
"In the past we trained for three years full time, these days you can do all the training in six months."
