BRITAIN'S leading wheelchair athlete Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson was close to tears when she collected her latest honour from the Queen at Buckingham Palace yesterday.
"I was fine until I saw my dad," she said. "It was really emotional."
Dame Tanni, 35, from Redcar, has won 11 gold medals, including gold at the Athens Paralympics. She was made a Dame in the New Year Honours.
Already awarded an OBE and MBE, she said: "It's pretty cool to be Dame Tanni - I never thought this would happen in my life.
"It shows how far paralympic sport has come in this country."
Dame Tanni, who also has the freedom of the Redcar and Cleveland Borough, received her damehood for services to disabled sport.
She later threw a lunch party for 27 family and friends, including her father, Peter Grey, husband Ian, and three-year-old daughter Carys.
"Carys was too young to come to the investiture so she went to Madame Tussaud's instead," said Dame Tanni.
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