by John Prince
The First Aid Centre in Hornsea has been given the very highest honour a voluntary group can receive in the UK.
The centre, which was established in 2018, has been awarded a King’s Award for Voluntary Service (KAVS) which is the equivalent of an MBE for volunteer groups.
Announced this morning (Saturday, November 14), the prestigious national honour is approved by His Majesty King Charles following a rigorous assessment process involving local and national panels.
Only a few hundred organisations across the country receive it each year, and it is awarded for life.
The honour recognises the outstanding work done by local volunteer groups to support and make a difference in their communities, and it represents national recognition at the highest level for voluntary work.
Created in 2002 to celebrate the late Queen’s Golden Jubilee, the KAVS was continued following the accession of His Majesty the King.
Recipients are announced annually on the King’s birthday. This year the First Aid Centre is among 250 charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups across the UK to receive the prestigious award
Other groups include Reuben’s Retreat in Greater Manchester, a group which provides palliative care in Dyfed in Wales, and another that improves wellbeing in a rural community in Perth and Kinross in Scotland.
Representatives of Hornsea First Aid Centre will receive the award crystal and certificate from Mr James Dick OBE, Lord-Lieutenant of the East Riding of Yorkshire, in the coming months.
In addition, two volunteers from the centre – which is based in the Tesco car park on Southgate in Hornsea – will attend a royal garden party at Buckingham Palace next year along with other recipients of this year’s award.
The national recognition comes just over a year after the centre’s founder and chair, Rosie Bullard, was given the Special Recognition Award at the 2025 HEY Smile Foundation Time2Volunteer Awards in recognition of more than 50 years of voluntary service.
Rosie (above, with husband Andy) said: “I feel a little overwhelmed, but delighted, excited and, most of all, honoured. This award isn’t for one person – it’s for everybody involved with Hornsea First Aid Centre.
“I’m so proud of all our volunteers and what we’ve achieved together, particularly when I think about how it all started.
“When the minor injuries unit was facing closure in 2018, there were lots of discussions about why it couldn’t continue. So many people helped to get us started.
“The NHS unit closed in April and we opened in June. We had no idea then just how much the centre would grow.
“Since then, our volunteers have worked incredibly hard. Our trained first aiders and our meet-and-greeters have been wonderful, giving up their time freely to help others.
“We now see between 800 and 1,000 people every year, and I’m enormously proud of the difference we’ve been able to make.
“But we’ve achieved all this while working in what is really little more than a tin can. It’s bitterly cold in winter, the water freezes, the lights can fail when the solar panels haven’t had enough sunshine and we have no mains electricity or toilet facilities of our own.
“None of us is getting any younger, yet our volunteers continue to turn up and do what they can for the community. Tesco has been incredibly good to us, providing water and helping whenever we need anything, but we’ve simply outgrown the cabin.”
For Rosie, seeing young people give their time so freely and take that experience forward into their careers is one of the most rewarding aspects of the centre’s work.
She added: “We’ve welcomed students on work placements who have gone on to university, including medical school, and others who hope to become doctors.
“One of our volunteers trained with us before going to Hull University to become a paramedic. She’s now in her final year, still volunteers and is one of our trustees.
“To see young people giving their time and taking that experience forward into their lives is wonderful.
“I hope this award helps people recognise the value of what we do and the extraordinary commitment of everyone involved.
“We are still desperately looking for somewhere more suitable to work from. We don’t need anything grand – all we want is a room somewhere where we can carry on helping people.
“My greatest hope is that somebody will see this recognition and realise that Hornsea First Aid Centre is worth having. Our volunteers have proved that time and again, and this award belongs to every single one of them.”
For husband Andy Bullard, who also volunteers at the centre, the King’s Award is a source of immense pride – not only in the volunteers who have made the First Aid Centre such a success, but particularly in Rosie.
He said: “This is Hornsea to its core. We know what we need, and we will do it for ourselves. That’s what this town is all about.
“When the minor injuries unit was closing, everybody was talking about it and complaining and campaigning to keep it open. But Rosie recognised that if the NHS had made its decision, there was probably very little anyone could do to change it.
“Instead, she said, ‘What are we going to do for ourselves?’ And that’s where it all started. Only a few people would have had the vision to say, ‘We can do this.’ But that’s my wife.
“She saw what needed doing and she made it happen. What she’s done is pioneering.
“It’s wonderful that the team has received this award because so much hard work has gone into making the centre what it is. But more than anything else, it makes me incredibly proud of Rosie, who drove the whole thing forward.
“She received her own recognition for volunteering last year, which was thoroughly deserved, but this award is different.
“This is for the group she brought together and for everything they’ve achieved since.
“I’m absolutely delighted for every one of them, but at the heart of it, I’m just so proud of my wife.”
On Friday, 22 volunteers gathered at the centre and were told in secret that they had won the prestigious award. Sworn to keep their lips tightly sealed until the official announcement day, the smiles and words of congratulations just showed how close the team have become.
Trevor Gordon who has been with the First Aid Centre since the start. He joined following an informal chat at a community event held in Tesco car park where first-aid activities were taking place.
He said: “It’s amazing because we don’t often see this many people in the hut at the same time. We pick up the bat. It’s a good place.
“We provide a vital service. You look at the amount of money we’ve saved NHS by having people here and not sending them to doctors and places like that.
“We patch them up and advise. We can’t give medication, but we them help a lot.
“It’s nice to help the community, that’s the top and bottom of it. Sometimes it’s not about having treatment. They come and have a cup of tea, cup of coffee, chill and chat and watch the world go by.”
Clemmie Thomson (above) is training to be a paramedic at Hull University. Her upcoming ambulance placement is scheduled to begin in December in Hornsea.
She said: “I’m a mum of six and I was a stay-at-home mum looking after the kids. My husband was working. I was at Tesco’s one day and saw they were looking for volunteers, so I rang the number.
“It’s invaluable. My very first shift was an elderly gentleman who had lost his wife and came in for something simple, as he couldn’t put the plaster on a blister on his foot. It’s not something you go to the doctors for, and he couldn’t get an appointment.
“The longer he left that, it was going to get ulcerated. So we dressed it and he could come in and get it done again, because he had no one at home to do it for him.
“I just needed something that was flexible so I could come and interact with people. Get my skills up.
“We’ve had students in for work placements and the majority have absolutely loved it, and it gives them a taste of what we do.
“They have to interact with people here and abide by confidentiality.
“There are so many skills that they can learn. It’s great for the youth. I’d like to see more of that.
“This award is absolutely deserved.”
