His Majesty The King’s Birthday Honours 2025
Dedicated members of the NHS Ambulance Service in England, and from the Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish Ambulance Services, have become recipients of the prestigious Kings’s Ambulance Service Medal for Distinguished Service, announced in His Majesty the King’s Birthday Honours List.
The King’s Ambulance Service Medal (KAM) honours a very small, select group of ambulance personnel who have shown exceptional devotion to duty, outstanding ability, merit and conduct in their roles within NHS Ambulance Services, and the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, who coordinates the nominations for England, welcomed the recognition.
Today’s KAM recipients are Jemma Varela, Critical Care Advanced Paramedic and Head of Clinical Operations, East of England Ambulance Service; Lee Umpleby, Senior Paramedic, East of England Ambulance Service; Laura Charles, Duty Control Manager, Welsh Ambulance Service; Kieran Devine, Duty Control Manager, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service; and Sarah Stevenson, Risk Manager at the Scottish Ambulance Service.
Laura Charles
Duty Control Manager, WAST
Laura, 48, who is originally from Fife in Scotland, moved to Cwmbran in 2001 and settled in the area, before joining the Welsh Ambulance Service as a call taker in 2007.
Laura started her career in Mamhilad control as a 999 Call Taker before moving to Cwmbran in 2009 when the two control rooms merged.
She then became a Dispatcher and by 2016, had progressed to the role of Allocator, gaining wide experience and knowledge in control room functions.
In 2022, Laura took on the role of Shift Manager for the south-east area before becoming Operations Manager in November 2024.
Kieran Devine
Duty Control Manager, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service
Kieran has 36 years of dedicated service in the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) and has held several operational posts across the service, and currently holds the role of Duty Control Manager.
He is an outstanding individual, with exceptional leadership skills and has always had an enormous impact in NIAS.
Sarah Stevenson
Risk Manager, Scottish Ambulance Service
Sarah Stevenson, of Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, is the recipient of King’s Ambulance Service Medal (KAM).
Sarah joined the Service is 2005 and became SAS’s Risk Manager in 2008, a position she had held since.
Throughout the past two decades, she has embedded vital risk management arrangements and recently been instrumental in developing an internal programme (InPhase) across the Service for the reporting and management of adverse events, feedback and risks to ensure ongoing patient and staff safety.
Jemma Varela
Critical Care Advanced Paramedic and Head of Clinical Operations, EEAST
and
Lee Umpleby
Senior Paramedic, East of England Ambulance Service, EEAST.
For further details visit the EEAST website here.
Further recognition for the ambulance sector
As well as the King’s Ambulance Medal, AACE also pay tribute to other members of the ambulance sector who have been recognised.
NHS staff involved in the response to the Southport knife attack are among those being recognised in the 2025 King’s Birthday Honours list.
Paul Smith, Senior Paramedic Team Leader, North West Ambulance Service, was a first responder, treating the victims of the attack on the scene in Southport.
Sir Jim Mackey, Chief Executive at NHS England, said the awards highlight the “incredible dedication and commitment” of those who responded to the attack in July 2024.
Barnstaple Community First Responder Geoff Edwards, awarded British Empire Medal in King’s Birthday Honours.
Geoff, who has volunteered with South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) for 23 years, received the honour for services to the community in Barnstaple
Anne Cadman, of Dalry, North Ayrshire, from the Scottish Ambulance Service, has been awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).
Anne currently works as Business Support Administrator for SAS’s ScotSTAR Service, which provides specialist care to seriously ill babies, children and adults across Scotland using specialist response vehicles, ambulances, helicopters and planes.
Keith Jensen, of Aberdeen, has received an Officer of the Order of the British (OBE).
Keith Jensen, Area Service Manager for South and West Aberdeenshire, first joined the Service in June 1994, starting out as an ambulance care assistant. He has been instrumental in leading multiple teams in the North region, including being at the forefront of the Service’s response to Covid, and has been invaluable in his support to the SAS Wildcat Cardiac Responders.
Carl Ledbury, formerly of WMAS and is still part of their ceremonial unit, as well as a member of TASC, has received a BEM.
About the King’s Ambulance Service Medal
The King’s Ambulance Service Medal is awarded to members of the NHS Ambulance Service (and equivalents) in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands for distinguished service. It was introduced on 11 July 2011 and first awarded during the 2012 Birthday Honours. Recipients may use the post-nominal letters “KAM” or “QAM” depending on when the award was made, and on occasions when the use of such letters is customary.
The number of nominations in any one year may never exceed ten and includes up to four Medals for England, up to two Medals for Wales, up to two Medals for Scotland, up to one Medal for Northern Ireland and up to one Medal for the Channel Islands.
In accordance with custom, the medals will be formally presented at an Investiture Ceremony.
Learn more about the KAM nomination process here.
We offer our sincere congratulations to all recipients and thank them for their dedication and service.
