A mother who helped set up a centre and support group for victims of brain injury after her son was in a road crash is among those recognised in the New Year's Honours today.

Ann Cummings, of Buckle Rise, Seaford, is made an MBE for helping to establish and run Headway Hurstwood Park, a specialist care centre for victims of brain injury.

Mrs Cummings was spurred into action in 1986 when her son Ian suffered severe brain injuries in a road crash.

Finding little support outside hospital, she established her own group which has now helped hundreds of victims and their families cope with life after brain damage.

Mrs Cumming said: "Alongside being a wife and mother, this award is the greatest honour that could have been bestowed upon me.

"My husband John, my son Ian and my daughter Kay have been my foundations and my rocks throughout the past 13 years.

"Without their love and support, and that of our special friends, allies, sponsors and helpers, we would not have managed to accomplish all that we have.

"On the night of the crash, Ian was given two hours to live and we were asked if we wanted to say our last goodbyes to him.

"But, thank God, he did live and if he walked into a room now, you would not know he had had head injuries."

Mrs Cummings, now 55, said at the time there were no support groups locally for victims and their relatives. With help from Hurstwood Park Hospital in Haywards Heath and other parents, Mrs Cummings started her own support group.

The group began in 1988 with five clients, including Ian, meeting twice a week. It now runs five days a week and has 30 clients across Sussex.

An incident on a bus more than 30 years ago led to Beverley Ireson devoting her life to helping the deaf and hard of hearing.

Mrs Ireson, of Lancing, said: "I was inspired when I was 18, going on the bus in the morning, when a girl I would now know to be profoundly deaf got on.

"She was trying to tell the conductor where she wanted to go. I thought it was awful that on a whole bus of people no one could help this girl."

As a result, Mrs Ireson, 55, began learning sign language and later learnt and started to teach lip reading.

Today she becomes an MBE in recognition of her work with the association of Teachers of Lip Reading to Adults during the past 20 years.