Health chief appeals for return of stolen CBE medal

A public health director awarded the CBE for outstanding service to the NHS has appealed to thieves to return the “irreplaceable” medal after his home was burgled.

Raiders struck at the home of Professor John Ashton in Dent, Cumbria, on November 6 and took the CBE, jewellery and a BB gun.

Prof Ashton said: “You hear about how awful it is to be burgled and to have strangers roaming around your home and stealing your precious things but it is only when it happens to you that you experience that sickening sense of violation.

“I am not somebody who cares much about possessions but what has been stolen means such a lot emotionally.

“My wife’s jewellery that has gone includes things that were her mother’s and grandmother’s as well as the diamond and pearl necklace that we bought for my mother when we went to Buckingham Palace for me to receive my CBE.

“The CBE Itself is irreplaceable because it was put around my neck by the Queen with my mother present not long before my mother died.

“I can’t imagine that the thief will have got more than a few pounds for it.

“I hope that whoever did this will understand my wife and my feelings and return these things which are so emotionally important to us.”

Prof Ashton was north-west regional director of public health and regional medical officer from 1993 to 2006 and director of public health and county medical officer for Cumbria from 2006.

Anyone with information about the burglary should contact police quoting log 61 of 6th November 2018.

Alternatively you can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

Advertisement