Northern Echo editor Peter Barron has received the MBE from the Prince of Wales in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

The award, originally announced in the New Year’s Honours List, was made in recognition of Peter’s services to journalism and community life.

Peter is the longest serving editor in the paper’s 144-year history, and has led some of its most notable campaigns, principally the Chance to Live campaign which changed government policy on heart bypass waiting times.

The campaign followed the death of an Echo photographer, Ian Weir, while he was on the waiting list for an operation.

Peter also spearheaded an Echo fund-raising campaign to build the Butterwick Children’s Hospice in Stockton and has since personally raised more than £20,000 for the charity through speaking fees and his Dad At Large books.

He joined the Echo as a reporter in and returned as editor in 1999 after a two-year stint away as editor of the Hartlepool Mail.