A Sheppey mum has been given an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s honours list.

Kim Arrowsmith has been made a Member of the British Empire for services to children and families.

Speaking at her home in Queenborough Road, Halfway she said: “I have no idea why, or who nominated me. But it is a great honour.”

She was sent a letter from Downing Street in November telling her she had been nominated but warning her to keep the news a secret from friends, colleagues and even her family until New Year’s Day.

She admitted: “At first I thought the letter was a scam or a hoax.”

The award is for her work as manager of the Matchbox Day Nursery at Limehouse, East London which she helped create in 2003. The £49-a-day nursery now looks after 98 children a day aged from three months to five years.

Kim had already been working at Matchbox Playgroup which handles 32 children. She is in overall charge of that, along with two crèches of 10 children each for housing associations. She has a staff of 40 and commutes into London every day by car.

Kim, 57, said: “We look after all sorts of children. Their parents range from doctors and school teachers and those at university to those who work in the local shop and those who are teenage mums. It’s a real mixture.”

Kim was born in Tower Hamlets but moved to Sheppey with her husband Colin, 56, in 1998 when their boys Lee and Gary were teenagers. The family had visited the Island regularly as holidaymakers and owned a chalet in Leysdown. Kim said: “We thought it would be a good place to bring them up.”

She originally worked in a boat showroom at St Catherine’s Dock but when she became a mum she retrained as a playgroup worker. She said: “It was difficult going back to my original work with two young children, so when the boys went to Matchbox Playgroup I went along to help and ended up retraining.”

She took over running the playgroup in 1988 after the Save The Children Fund handed it to the local community. When the government introduced neighbourhood nurseries, Tower Hamlets council invited her to a meeting and she helped set up a new nursery in Poplar.

Her job at the not-for-profit organisation includes looking after the accounts, paying the bills and ensuring staff are fully trained. It has also become something of a family affair. Husband Colin helps as an odd-job man and buys in supplies from the local cash-and-carry. Even son Gary lends a hand with IT.

Kim said: “The nursery can support children with special needs including those with autism and Down's Syndrome, in addition to supporting children with tracheotomies who depend upon specialist feeding by tube.”

She added: “I’ve often thought about opening something similar on Sheppey.”

Matchbox Nursery also sponsors Sheerness East under-10s football team, where Kim’s grandson Harry plays, and recently bought the team new kit.

Kim will be presented with her medal at either Buckingham Palace or St James’ Palace within the next seven months.