A royal bolt from the blue for Mario

The pioneering work of Pendine Park proprietor Mario Kreft has been honoured by the Queen.

Mario, the Honorary Chief Executive of Care Forum Wales, has been awarded an MBE for services to social care.

According to Mario, the news came like "a delightful bolt out of the blue" especially as the timing of the accolade in the Queen's Birthday Honours coincides with the 25th anniversary of Pendine Park.

We are also about to open a new centre of excellence, called Bodlondeb (place of contentment) to look after people with dementia at their main site in Wrexham and there are plans in the pipeline for a similar centre in Caernarfon.

Mario said: "I think the MBE is recognition of the huge contribution of social care in communities right across Wales, including the teams at Care Forum Wales and Pendine Park.

"It's a huge team approach and is a reward for all the work that we've been doing together over the years to raise standards in social care and to promote the profession of social care."

Mario and his wife, Gill, were inspired by their own personal experience to establish Pendine Park 1985.

They both had elderly grandparents who needed care and the places they went to see didn't match their requirements - so they set up their own "family care home".

Mario is now one of the leading figures in the care sector in Wales and is the founder and Honorary Chief Executive of the representative body, Care Forum Wales.

For eight years, he was a Government-appointed member of the Care Council for Wales and previously served for seven years on the Central Council for Training and Education in Social Work.

He played key roles in developing the Care Standards Act and in helping to draw up the Welsh Assembly Government's 10-year-strategy, Fulfilled Lives, Supportive Communities, to safeguard vulnerable adults and children.

Among Mario's proudest achievements are the creation of the Wales Care Awards to recognise the contribution of staff and setting up a successful pilot project with the aim of developing a professional body for social care workers, the Academy of Care Practitioners Cymru.