Walsall swimming teacher 'honoured' to be invited to King's Coronation Garden Party
A woman who has taught children to swim for decades is "honoured" to have been invited to the King's Coronation Garden Party at Buckingham Palace.
Glenys Allison from Willenhall has been the driving force at Darlaston Swimming Club since 1988 and was awarded the British Empire Medal for her service to the club.
The 74-year-old, who will be taking her husband Robert to Buckingham Palace on May 3, said: "I'm very honoured to be invited and we're looking forward to going, although we're not sure what we do there yet."
During her time at Darlaston Swimming Club, which Glennys took charge of in 2000, the swimming teacher subsidised hundreds of children's lessons and was the only teacher on the team to work on a voluntary basis.
Even during the summer holidays when lessons stopped, she continued to give free one-to-one lessons to "a little girl who was very nervous".
Glenys said: "Competition doesn’t matter, it’s about keeping children safe. I have always done this for the children and never intended to make a profit from it, because everything that comes in goes towards the children and it’s all for them.
"If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be getting this award and this has always been a friendly club, so I’m honoured to receive this award and honoured that someone went to the trouble of nominating me for it."
King Charles and Camilla, the Queen Consort, have also invited 850 people to the Coronation on May 6 in recognition of their charitable contributions.
The group includes 450 British Empire Medal recipients and 400 young people from groups chosen by the Royal Family.
