A Queenstown councillor is to be recognised for her work with unemployed and abused people in Wandsworth in the New Year's Honours list.

Councillor Marie Hanson, a Conservative member of Wandsworth Council, will be made an Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire as a mark of her work with the charity STORM (Support, Trust, Opportunity, Rebuilding, Motivation).

She described herself as "humbled, honoured and proud" to receive the honour.

Coun Hanson, 50, set up the charity in 2004, after a career in make-up and beauty therapy, to help single parents and immigrants among others across the borough.

She said: "I started the charity in 2004 after receiving domestic violence and escaping from my partner.

"I set up the charity to empower other woman.

"Because I'm dyslexic and have a management degree, I wanted to show people that they could do it."

Coun Hanson has now stepped down from a management role within the company but remains a trustee.

She said: "I wanted to be a voice for the community and have an impact helping people.

"The award is not just for me but for the team as well.

"If it was not for them and for my children as well, you could not have an organisation like this.

"If I feel like I'm falling, they always pick me up."

Coun Hanson said she wanted to use her own life experiences to show people that their situations should not hold them back in the future.

She said: "Working with the charity opened my eyes that a lot of women and people in general need a chance and someone to believe in them.

"Whatever happened in my life, there was a reason and God made me turn it around for the good."

STORM provides free literacy and numeracy classes, a job shop, and a help line to get single parents into work.

She also provides similar support to immigrants and victims of domestic violence.

Wandsworth Council expanded her premises around four years ago in order to expand the operation and her annual Peace Concert is sponsored by Wandsworth Police.

She has been a councillor for Queenstown since 2014, and sits on the adult care and health overview and scrutiny committee.