A GREAT-grandmum who grew up in an orphanage has been made an MBE for caring for others.

Greenock woman Marion Wallace received the award in the New Year's Honours list in recognition of her 30 years of voluntary work in the Bow Farm area.

She said that she had been bowled over after hearing the news and had spent the day in tears of joy.

She said: `At first I thought it was a joke and I had to get my son to come over and read the letter to make sure.

`He said that because it was on headed paper then there could be something in it.

`But it was only when the list appeared on Teletext and I was mentioned in the Telegraph that I believed it - I didn't know how to feel and I just cried the whole day.` Marion never knew her mum and dad and lived in an orphanage until she was 14.

But the great-grandmum, now 66, has spent the rest of her life caring for others.

She started out by organising youth clubs for teenagers in Bow Farm Neighbourhood Centre and ran a unemployment club for local men.

Among other activities she also put on a lunch club for the elderly, and helped local families go on camping holidays.

Marion said she won't be slowing down despite being awarded an MBE and will continue to work for the community.

She said: `I now organise a group that helps the elderly by sending volunteers around to visit them and do their shopping, or take them into town.

`I've spent 30 years doing voluntary work, first with teenagers, then adults and now the elderly.

`As I grow older it seems that I just move on to something else.`