A North East charity founder who adopted five children with disabilities has spoken of her pride at being invited to the Queen’s funeral.

Lynn McManus of North Shields was asked to attend the ceremony at Westminster Abbey as one of 200 guests who were recognised in the Queen's Jubilee Birthday Honours.

The mother, who was awarded the MBE, founded Pathways 4 All and the Tim Lamb Children's Centre at the Rising Sun Country Park, in Benton, which helps over a thousand families. 

Mrs McManus, will be among 2,000 guests, including an anticipated 500 world leaders and dignitaries on Monday.

She said: “It is a tremendous honour to be invited. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and a memory I'll always have and be able to pass down to the family.

"I'm blown away watching the tv coverage, thinking I will be there and be part of it – little housewife me."

Mrs McManus said the invitation came "out of the blue" as she was sitting having coffee with her sister tea with a coffee with her sister "moaning about the challenges of life".

"Then the phone rings and it's the Cabinet office asking if I would like to attend the Queen's funeral."

She added: "The queen was an inspirational woman who had an amazing life, whose example you hope to follow.

"What is lovely is that she had four children and managed a family with humour alongside doing the job she did."

Mrs McManus has attended one of the Queen's garden parties, and as well as her MBE she also received a specially-designed pin from Camilla, Queen Consort, given to about 500 people by the Royal Voluntary Service.

The mother got an MBE in recognition of her dedication to our charity, Pathways 4 All.

She established the charity in 2010 and has worked tirelessly to drive it forward ever since.

She has volunteered much of her spare time, alongside raising ten children and being a loving grandmother of seven.

Lynn’s five youngest children are all adopted and have a range of additional needs and disabilities.

Her motivation for starting the charity followed a negative experience at a soft play centre, when Lynn was instructed to leave following a behaviour incident involving her daughter Millie, who has ADHD, learning disabilities and a hearing impairment.

Frustrated by the lack of play opportunities for disabled children, Lynn started a community youth group in 2008 which evolved into a registered charitable organisation in 2010.

Mrs McManus' dream was to open a specialist activity centre where disabled children and their families could come without fear of judgement or ridicule.

In 2012 her dream became reality when Pathways 4 All opened the doors to the Tim Lamb Children’s Centre, offering sensory play facilities to around 60 Tyneside families with disabled children.

Mrs McManus continues to take an active voluntary role in both the day to day running of the charity and in the fundraising for it.

Over the past 10 years, she has organised 10 Charity Balls and raised in excess of £1.5 million, this has enabled the charity to improve the facilities on offer at the Tim Lamb Centre and continue to provide a lifeline to families.

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