UP CLOSE: Macclesfield's New Year's Honours receipient Tony Swallow OBE
A Macclesfield resident has been appointed an OBE in the New Year's Honours for his service to charities both locally and nationwide.
Tony Swallow, 81, has helped set up charities such as The Swallow Trust and Cre8, which helps support the younger generation and gives them a safe space to express themselves.
Mr Swallow was told about his OBE roughly six weeks before receiving it on New Year's.
"The first person I told was my wife and I think her reaction was pretty much the same as mine; she was pleased for myself, pleased for the both of us and pleased for the charities themselves," the Prestbury resident said.
"You don't set off to do these things with any intent to be rewarded. The reward, for me, is enough to see the improvements where you can see them being made.
"I see this as being a reward for the charities. Not for me.
"When you think of the work that has been done by people, a lot of them volunteers, many of them part-time and low paid. The work they do is absolutely tremendous, you couldn't speak or think highly enough of them.
"They are taking loads of kids off of the streets, giving them occupations and activities and sports as well as actually teaching them."
Tony's work with charities started around 20-years-ago, with The Swallow Trust being set up in 2007.
"I had more time on my hands and my wife and I decided that we would like to set up a charitable trust," Tony recalled.
"Particularly to help young people and to see what we could do to assist poverty in the area, and so that's what we did.
"We thought we would like to focus on young people, especially young people that were disadvantaged, there is an awful lot that is going on in the estates."
Cre8 was another charity set up by Tony and several other around ten years ago, this charity was set up to benefit the youth in Macclesfield and give them a place to spend their time.
"I had heard stories about young men, in particular, misbehaving on the estates in Macclesfield and one particular incident was people throwing bricks through a church and through a vicarage window,and I thought that was about as low as it could get," Tony explained.
"So I tried to find a way of dealing with that and I tried to make a contribution to making life better. I wanted to give young people something to do in those areas so instead of chucking bricks through windows, they could actually be enjoying themselves, having fun supervised by people under the watch of a charity.
"I found some like-minded people and that idea, which wasn't all my idea because other people 'yes I've been thinking along the same lines myself'.
"Out of that what was born, I won't say created because you will have to excuse the pun, was Cre8. Which is now a very successful charity in Macclesfield and doing great work.
Mr Swallow is also looking to build more on the opportunities that this OBE has given him.
"I want to take this opportunity to actually focus on the charity work that is done in Macclesfield and try and find ways to get people interested," Tony added.
"If more people supported the charities financially, I know many people can't afford to do that, but others can and if more people did, then there would be stronger charities that will be better for the kids and for Macclesfield.
"I think Macclesfield is a very friendly place and a lot of the people I know from the outside that come into Macclesfield say that the people always speak to you and so on and so forth.
"It is a town in its own right, but it is a typical northern town if I can put it that way, of course there are black spots, but they are the spots that ourselves and many others are trying to do something about.
All of us here at the Macclesfield Nub give congratulations to Tony on his OBE and thank you for all the amazing work that the charity workers and volunteers do on a daily basis.
You can learn more about Cre8 Macclesfield and donate to them here.
They also have a Facebook.
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