A Sandbach woman who is one of the founders of the state-of-the-art care village company Belong has been awarded the MBE in the Queen's birthday honours.

Tracy Paine, who lives in Sandbach, was awarded the MBE for her role revolutionising dementia care in the UK, pioneering the care village model.

The care village model has improved the quality of life for thousands of older people over the last decade and helped change the more institutional, task-orientated approaches to care.

As then Operations Director, Tracy was part of the Senior Management team which launched the first Belong village in Macclesfield in 2007.

There are now seven Belong villages include one in Crewe, Chester and Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Alongside former Chief Executive Nick Dykes and Finance Director Tracey Stakes, Tracy went on to transition the not-for-profit organisation's provision from  operating traditional care homes to establishing seven villages in the North West as well as dementia specialist home care and day care services.

Tracy said: "I am so very honoured to have been awarded an MBE in theQueen's Platinum Jubilee year. 

"My career in nursing has been the most exciting journey over 42 

years and in particular, I would like to thank the many colleagues and partners who have supported me over the years, particularly as a director of me over the years, particularly as a director of Belong. 

"I'm incredibly proud of what we achieved as a team, particularly in redesigning the built environment to world-class standards and provisioning the very best in dementia care through the household model and the village community.

Tracy worked tirelessly for the Tracy worked tirelessly form the organisation until standing down from her post as Deputy Chief Executive last summer.

She is a trustee for the End-of- life Partnership, NAPA (the National Association for the Provision of Activities) and the healthcare tech start-up, Decently.