LITTLE did kind-hearted Chris Westwood realise the legacy he would leave after deciding to set up a charity for disabled children following his retirement.

The 66-year-old from Pedmore founded the Chris Westwood Charity for Children with Physical Disabilities back in 2003.

Since then, the charity has gone from strength-to-strength and has already awarded £250,000 in grants over the past 11 years.

Now Chris has received an award of his own - an MBE in the New Year's honours list.

Chris, a former chemical engineer who lives in Pedmore Hall Lane, said: "It's nice to be appreciated, but I didn't set up the charity to win awards.

"All I wanted to do was something constructive with my estate when I died.

"If I'm awarded an MBE, then it might help raise the profile of the charity.

"I'm sure some people just look at me and think I'm a collection box in the corner. I hope they will think again now."

He added: "I wanted to help disabled children because I always thought they got a poor deal."

As a result, his charity has provided physically handicapped children with mobility equipment when no other source of funding was available to them.

Chris is also a governor of two local special schools and a trustee of another local charity which helps children with additional educational funding and local community groups.

And he confirmed: "When I first looked into forming the charity, I was appalled at the amount of money some charities take out. My charity runs at no cost whatsoever, we have never taken any money out and never turned a child away."

Last year the charity paid out £67,000 which was accumulated through fundraising events and donations.

Chris said: "I must admit I had no concept of fundraising when I set up the charity. Income from my estate was designed to see the charity grow.

"But money comes through various forms. We get donations from big charitable foundations and we also stage walkathons, hold quiz nights and charity lunches. We also have a donation page on our website.

"I won a pensions competition organised through the Financial Times and Equity and Law back in 2005. The prize was £5,000 worth of educational vouchers.

"I persuaded them to change that and make a £5,000 donation to my charity. It made the local papers and one of the staff from a special school saw it and got the head to get in touch and everything has gone from there.

"Once you've started something and it begins to grow, you cannot sit back and watch."

To find out more about the charity go to: http://chriswestwoodcharity.weebly.com/