A WOMAN from Llandudno was delighted to discover she has been invited to the coronation of King Charles III next month.

Val Conway, 79, will be in attendance with her fiancée at Westminster Abbey on Saturday, May 6 for the ceremony.

It follows her being awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) in the 2021 new year’s honours list after decades of charity work.

She and her fiancée plan to spend much of the bank holiday weekend in London, travelling by train from Llandudno Junction on May 4 and returning home on May 7.

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Val said: “The Cabinet Office emailed me to say I’d be receiving an invitation in the next two weeks. The postman then knocked on my door one morning last week which a big invitation; it’s beautiful.

“I went to the Queen (Elizabeth II)’s garden party last May, which was fabulous. I had a fantastic few days in London then.

North Wales Pioneer: (L-R) Janet Finch-Saunders MS; Val Conway; Henry George Fetherstonhaugh OBE DL; Cllr Harry Saville; and Councillor Philip C Evans J.P.(L-R) Janet Finch-Saunders MS; Val Conway; Henry George Fetherstonhaugh OBE DL; Cllr Harry Saville; and Councillor Philip C Evans J.P. (Image: Submitted)

“Lots of my family asked me what I wanted to do for my 80th birthday (in june), and I said I’d really love to go to London again, but to see the sights this time – now, I’m going sooner than I thought!

“I remember the Queen’s coronation; I was 10 years old, and we had a big street party. I remember saying then that one day, I will see the Gold State Coach. Now, 70 years on, I’m going to!

“I hope I have the chance to meet King Charles – only 45 people with BEMs have been invited, and I’m one of them, which is amazing.

“I’m a royalist; I love the royal family. I loved the Queen and I love King Charles.”

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Val received her BEM at a ceremony at Taverners Court, Llandudno in early 2022, having been nominated by Aberconwy Physically Handicapped and Able Bodied (PHAB) Club.

She has supported Aberconwy PHAB Club for nearly four decades, and has also helped the Shine charity, which provides support for spina bifida and hydrocephalus sufferers, for more than 50 years.

Her daughter, Susie, was born paralysed from the waist down and had to spend her life in a wheelchair, suffering from spina bifida and hydrocephalus before her death at the age of 32 in 2001.

Since then, Val started an annual “Susie Sunshine Walk” along Llandundo’s promenade.