Anti-bullying campaigner overwhelmed by OBE award
BBCAn anti-bullying campaigner appointed an OBE in the New Year's Honours list said receiving the accolade had been overwhelming.
Alex Holmes founded the peer-to-peer anti-bullying ambassadors programme aged 16 while a student in Deanshanger, south Northamptonshire, following his own experiences of being bullied.
The programme has since trained 50,000 young people across 5,000 schools, and has also been used in schools in France and Greece.
The 36-year-old, who lives in Hertfordshire, said he was surprised when people from his school days got in touch to congratulate him.
Mr Holmes said: "You never do the work to look for recognition, but it spurs you on.
"It was a little bit overwhelming how many people got in touch."
He started the peer-to-peer support 20 years ago after realising many of his school friends had little knowledge of how to advocate for themselves or others being bullied.
He said: "I was 16 and joined sixth form and I'd gone through bullying myself at school in Deanshanger, and it affected my self-esteem and confidence.
"I felt a lot of my peers didn't know how to stand up or protect me or themselves from bullying.
"So I came out with this idea for anti-bullying ambassadors - young people whose job it was to learn how to protect themselves, and shape attitudes and change behaviours."
During his career he also campaigned to change the dictionary definition of bullying, which he called one of his "proudest moments".
"When you looked it up it used to say it was happening to people 'weaker', and I thought that was wrong to label people as 'weak'.
"We campaigned, and one-by-one they did [change it].
"To know there's a big network of young people tackling all kind of harmful behaviours and bullying behaviours - I'm always very happy with that success."
His work led to him receiving The Diana Award in 2004. He is now the award programme's deputy chief executive, which recognises young individuals' outstanding contributions to social action and humanitarian efforts.
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