BURNLEY housewife Anne-Marie Coppock has received a personal award from the Pope for her dedication to charity work.

Anne-Marie's work for the Catholic International Aid Agency CAFOD and Salford Diocese Faith and Justice Commission has been recognised in the annual pontifical honours.

Mrs Coppock, 56, of Lower Manor Lane, Burnley, only decided to take part in charity work when her children had left school.

Since this time and despite still being a busy grandmother of eight, her work has been recognised by various sources and prompted the personal gift from Pope John Paul II.

She received the Papal Award Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice For the Church and Pontiff last week at St John's Church, Ivy Street, Burnley. The award, was given for outstanding contributions in justice and development for her charity work.

Anne-Marie who is married to John, 58, and has five children, has worked energetically for the CAFOD as a volunteer for more than 20 years, in that time visiting Peru and Kenya.

She has worked full-time for CAFOD for the past 10 years visiting projects in Bangladesh and organising campaign events throughout the North West, Birmingham, London, Germany and Italy, helping to raise awareness of injustice throughout the world.

She said: "It's such a huge honour to be presented with a personal award from the Pope for doing the work which I feel so strongly about anyway. I remember going to Bangladesh funded by the lottery with people that had never been overseas before and there had been terrible floods on one particular part.

"I saw a woman washing a tin pot with her little girl who started crying when she saw me. She was frightened because she had never seen anyone like me before but her mum told her it was all right because I was her sister, despite the fact that she had never seen me before either.

"It wasn't until I came back that I really thought about it and realised that she saw the humanity between us both which doesn't happen very often. I was touched by that and those are the kind of experiences that make this kind of work so rewarding."

Julian Filochowski, the recently retired director of CAFOD, presented the award to Anne-Marie.

Mr Filochowski was himself awarded a CMG - Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the Queen's New Year honours list.

Mr Filochowski paid tribute to her tireless campaigning for Justice and said: "She may describe herself as an ordinary housewife but she has certainly achieved extraordinary results, an example for anyone to follow."

Peter Grimshaw, CAFOD's Regional Organiser and Anne-Marie's colleague at their Preston Office said: "She is a tireless campaigner with a deep thirst for justice borne of her parents example, her northern roots, and the support of her two sons three daughters and husband John.

"We are all very proud of her achievements and delighted her efforts have been recognised in this way."