A vet who advocates for protecting and preserving rare animal breeds has been named on the New Year's Honours list.
Amanda Carson, of Seascale, West Cumbria, has been recognised for her services to farming and to the protection of rare breeds.
Mrs Carson will receive an MBE in the New Year's Honours. Previously she was awarded an Associate of the Royal Agricultural Society ARAgS, which she described as a 'huge honour'.
She said: "My father was a coal miner at Whitehaven and he was a double amputee so I grew up as a child carer.
"I went to Wyndham School in Egremont and had a fantastic teacher called Norman Hunter who told me 'nothing's impossible it just takes a little longer.'
"Eventually I got into university to study to be a vet in Australia. I worked there but eventually moved back to the UK and was a partner at a local veterinary practice in Egremont.
"In 2001 we had the foot and mouth epidemic which had a tremendous impact on farmers and vets alike.
"After that, I felt that there was perhaps more that could be done to help farmers and their communities."
She joined the government as a vet and eventually became the lead for sheep and goats.
"I would inform farmers about the possibility of diseases in these types of animals," she said.
"I had a big part to play in doing that with the government and doing research into finding new diseases and how to manage them.
"In 2001 I had some Herdwick sheep that were in danger of being wiped out by the foot and mouth disease.
"Along with another scientist I organised the collection of semen and embryos from other rare breeds of sheep in case they were about to face extinction.
"This is when my love of native breeds began and I started to advocate for protecting and preserving them.
"I wanted to protect our cultural heritage of farming in the Lake District."
