Away from sport, Jennifer Rayner has been appointed an MBE for services to mental health for her work with The Lucy Rayner Foundation, which she started after her daughter took her own life.
She said she was “a little bit shocked, a little bit surprised, a little bit emotional” when she found out she was to be a recipient of a New Year Honour.
“My daughter had the letter, and she was holding it up and saying to me, ‘Look what’s come in the post,’ and I thought it was jury service,” Ms Rayner said.
The Lucy Rayner Foundation supports others by raising awareness of the signs and symptoms of mental health issues in young people, while having its own counselling team.
“If someone had said to me 13 years ago when I first started the charity that at the end of this, I was going to be recognised with an MBE, I would say, ‘no way’,” she said.
“It doesn’t feel real to be honest, because I’m just an ordinary person doing something from the heart.”
Meanwhile, Kathryn Peters, from Epsom, has also been appointed an MBE for services to journalism.
The former BBC bureau chief for Russia and Ukraine spent more than 30 years with the corporation.
Headmaster of Barrow Hills School in Godalming, John Francis Towers, has also been appointed an MBE for services to education, while former Reigate and Banstead councillor Rachel Turner has been awarded an BEM for political service.