The New Year Honours List for 2025 recognises the achievements and service of extraordinary people across the UK. Four Leander Club athletes have been awarded Honours following their Olympic success – Erin Kennedy OBE, Lola Anderson MBE, Georgina Brayshaw MBE and Hannah Scott MBE.
Cox Erin Kennedy, 32, was honoured for her services to the sport and for raising breast cancer awareness.
She was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer aged 29 after finding a lump in her breast while training in Italy in 2022. After months of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and intensive rehabilitation, she returned to rowing and was given the all-clear in March 2023.
Kennedy steered the Great Britain PR3 mixed coxed four to victory at the Paralympic Games in Paris to maintain her 14-year unbeaten record.
The three-time World Champion, three-time European Champion and world best time holder, who competes for Leander club, said she was “shocked” when she received the letter.
She said: “I had been away on a charity trek in India when I had a letter from the cabinet office. It was really unexpected and a real privilege because it’s rowing and services to breast cancer awareness, which made me particularly proud because the impact of the charity work has been recognised.
“I don’t take it lightly at all and I appreciate the honour that it is. It goes beyond me and sport and the things I have done in that small world, to something that’s much bigger. They call it honours for a reason. I feel very honoured to be included in the list because I know I have been included alongside some amazing people.
“It’s not been the three years I would have wanted but being able to use my voice and platform to raise awareness has been one of the privileges of the last couple of years and to keep rowing and maintain the gold medal while doing so has been the cherry on top.”
Leander’s Hannah Scott, Georgina Brayshaw and club captain Lola Anderson, alongside Leicester Rowing Club’s Lauren Henry, claimed gold in Paris after a photo finish.
They won in 6.31, with the Netherlands 0.15 seconds behind them. It was Team GB’s first gold at the Games.
Anderson, 26, described the award as a “huge honour.” She said: “It’s pretty hard to describe how it feels. I feel this year has just been one amazing surprise or experience after another. It feels pretty incredible.
“There’s always going to be lots of ups and downs when you are trying to get something that’s quite out of reach to begin with. But I can look back on every step I’ve taken and just be really grateful for every part of the journey, the good and the bad.”
Georgina Brayshaw, 31, said: “Winning gold at the Olympics for me was incredible and for my friends and family, but receiving an MBE makes me feel like the nation recognises it. It’s just really special and what a way to end such an amazing year. It has just been an absolute whirlwind of amazingness.”
Brayshaw was in a horse-riding accident aged 15 which left her in a coma for nine days and paralysed the left side of her body. Doctors initially thought she would never walk again and might not be able to feed herself.
She said: “I’m just really proud. To defy all of those odds and go back to normal life and go on and be an Olympic champion is just unbelievable. I think people are still a bit gobsmacked that I managed to achieve it but I’m the sort of person that will never take no for an answer. If someone tells me I can’t do something, I will make sure I prove them wrong.”
Hannah Scott, 25, who is originally from Coleraine in Northern Ireland, said: “It was a really nice surprise, opening up the letter I didn’t expect to get one, so it is a real honour for me.
“It is also nice for the other people around me to be recognised in terms of me getting this award, for the support they gave me, from my coach and my family growing up. This has been my dream just to be able to do this as a job and now to be recognised for doing what you love is more than what anyone can ask for.
“I definitely would tell everyone to pursue what you love, because you never know what can come off the other side of it. I did not think that this would ever accumulate to the King’s honour, but here we are today.”
Scott came seventh in the Tokyo Olympics, coming seventh. She said: “It has been a journey and to finally complete it in Paris in that set-up was just a dream come true because everything had to align to that day. I feel very grateful to have had both sides of the coin, to appreciate the success now and not get too high with it and not get too low with it. But just have that balance and be able to appreciate the people around me and the people who have got me there and held me through the tough times.”
A change to the criteria for the awarding of gongs to mark sporting success has been noted. The GB men’s eight, who won gold at the Paris Olympics last summer, were not on the New Year’s Honours List, along with other Olympic and Paralympic heroes.
With thanks to the Henley Standard
