Leona O’Neill, founder of the Boom Foundation, has been awarded the MBE for services to charitable fundraising for people with Sarcoma.

The Boom Foundation was set up by Leona in April 2013 having lost her fiancé Philip to Sarcoma, a rare form of soft tissue and bone cancer, only six weeks before their wedding day. The lack of support that existed in Northern Ireland during her fiancé’s illness fuelled her determination to put a support network in place for those suffering from this ‘forgotten cancer’.