Stuart Fearn, 51, who is head of customer contact for the society, will receive the honour for his commitment to community work and, in particular, helping local businesses and people during pandemic.

Fearn, who lives in South Shields with his wife Kirsty and their 10-year-old daughter (pictured), was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in 2012 and says his illness has been a huge influence on his life ever since.

“Since my diagnosis, I’ve received an amazing level of care and support from some incredible doctors and nurses,” he said.

“I’m so grateful and feel it’s my duty to pay it back by helping the people around me who need support, something that’s more important than ever during the coronavirus crisis.

“I’m lucky to work for an organisation which challenges and enables its employees to do their best for their community and am fortunate to have many colleagues at Newcastle Building Society who share my passion for the community and who are committed to making a difference to people’s lives wherever we can.”

One of the many ways Fearn helped his community was ensuring local branches could stay open to support vulnerable customers during the pandemic. This included personally sourcing PPE for employees in branches from China.

He also worked to source hand sanitiser and specialist hand cream for use by key workers in the community when these items were scarce.

Teesside-based autism charity, Daisy Chain, benefited from his support during the crisis as did many other local charities, businesses and organisations.

What’s more, Fearn also undertook a project to create a series of socially distanced doorstep family photographs – ‘families during coronavirus’ – in his local area, collecting cash donations for every photograph to fund food donations to his local Bay Foodbank.

Despite being responsible for such overwhelming change in his community, Fearn said the award was ‘totally unexpected’.

“I am shocked, thrilled and honoured to have been awarded an MBE,” he said.

“The Covid-19 crisis has disproportionately impacted the most vulnerable people in our communities, and has made it clear that we all need to help each other more and particularly through these difficult times.”