It has been a special New Year's Honours list 2021 for Evercreech, as the village has links to two of the people honoured.

Paramedic and international volunteer Nich Woolf, who is a long-serving member of Evercreech-based Festival Medical Services (FMS), has been awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM), while Evercreech villager Rebecca Cobbin, who works for the HM Courts and Tribunals Service, has seen her MBE upgraded to an OBE.

Nich hit the headlines during the year when he became stranded in one of the world's most remote, but Covid-free, communities where he was working as an emergency medicine volunteer.

He is also a trustee of FMS, who run the medical services at Glastonbury and Reading music festivals and raise money for medical causes in the UK and around the world.

Nich originally travelled from his Burnham-on-Sea home to the Pacific nation of Vanuatu in February to work with emergency ambulance crews and should have been back by April, but the country closed its borders to preserve its virus-free status.

He eventually made it home in mid-October – after enlisting the help of the British High Commissioner to renew his expired passport and secure him a precious seat on a cargo plane leaving the main island of Santo.

During his time on Santo, Nich helped the local people recover from category-five tropical cyclone Harold whose 190 miles per hour winds bore down on the country in March destroying villages and homes in its wake.

The country's 80 islands - three-hours flying time from Australia - are prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, but Nich, aged 67, who retired last year from the Welsh Ambulance Service, is no stranger to challenging working conditions.

He has previously made four trips to Afghanistan to provide essential training for hospital staff in emergency medicine and the use of life-saving equipment. And last year he volunteered as a paramedic in Haiti – one of the most dangerous societies on earth.

Nich said: "I have always believed in using my skills to help other people keep safe and have fun – as at Glastonbury Festival – or to help them improve their own skills and ability to keep their local population safe and well.

"I have been fortunate to have been able to travel widely and have learnt as much from meeting people from other countries and cultures as ever they have learnt from me.

"I am very pleased to receive this totally unexpected recognition for my contribution.

"What I'd like to see most as we go into 2021 is the same as everyone else - the back of Covid-19 - so we could start planning for Glastonbury and Reading and all the other live events that FMS supports, and start bringing in funds again for the world-wide medical charities and projects we champion. That would make me happier still."

FMS celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2019 and had raised more than £1 million for small-scale medical projects around the world before this year's lockdown halted its work and fundraising.

Meanwhile, Evercreech resident Rebecca Cobbin, who is a family jurisdictional support manager for HM Courts and Tribunals Service, has also received a New Year Honour.

Rebecca already had been awarded an MBE, but she now has an OBE for services to the administration of justice.