England Netball Honorary Life Member, Joan Mills, was named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list on Saturday.
She will be presented with an MBE later this year for services to netball, and with her impressive CV it’s easy to understand why!
Joan has previously been Vice Chairman of England Netball, and was also appointed Chairman.
Joan was the Netball Competition Manager at Manchester’s Commonwealth Games and more recently, in 2014, was the International Technical Delegate at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Not only has she been involved on an international scale, Joan has been heavily involved in grassroots netball for a number of years and founded her local side – Sevenoaks Netball Club.
After moving to the area at the age of 16 and discovering there was no club, she created one herself and there began over fifty years of involvement in netball.
She has been the chairman of what is now the Tonbridge Netball League, the Kent County Netball Association Committee, and also the founder member of Chislehurst Netball Club.
Her work within the sport has enabled her to travel all over the world – Joan was made England’s Team Manager in 2001 and toured Australia and New Zealand with the Roses.
She has also been Netball Europe Competition Manager for a number of years, a member of the England Netball International Strategy Group and also the Chair of the England Netball Supporters Club.
In 2014, she was inducted in to the England Netball Hall of Fame after years of wonderful work for our sport and is also an Honorary Life Member.
On being awarded an MBE, Joan said:
“I’m absolutely delighted and honoured to receive the award, especially in this special year of the Queen’s 90th Birthday celebrations.
“A big thank you to my netball friends for making the nomination!”
England Netball would like to congratulate Joan for this richly deserved accolade.
