Maggie's Medal

For more than 20 years, Maggie Smith-Bendell has been a Romany woman on a mission. She's worked on over 400 cases involving Gypsies and Travelling people, for the most part helping them to get planning permission to live on their land.

There are thousands of people out there who will tell you just how successful she's been and how glad they are to have had Aunt Maggie's help. And those of us who are luck enough to have had a cup of tea at the "Gry's Poove" know that to top it all off, Maggie is as humble as they come and just takes pleasure in helping her own people out.

She's been called the "grandmother of the land grab" and the Guardian newspaper referred to her as a "heroic and tireless campaigner for Gypsy rights". Now the Queen herself has voiced her agreement by including Maggie Smith-Bendell in her birthday honours list as a receipient of the British Empire Medal.

In this special Travellers' times report, you can listen to Maggie talking about how much the medal means to her, and her friends and relatives telling how proud they are of what she's done for her community.