Broadcaster and writer Lemn Sissay awarded an OBE from Prince Charles at Windsor Castle

The moment Lemn Sissay is awarded an OBE from the Prince of Wales.

The award-winning broadcaster and writer Lemn Sissay has been awarded an OBE from Prince Charles at Windsor Castle.

The 54-year-old, who grew up in Ashton in Markerfield in Wigan and was the official poet of the 2012 London Olympics, received the honour for services to literature and to charity.

Mr Sissay, whose mother arrived in Britain from Ethiopia pregnant with him in 1966, spent his early life in foster care and children's homes, an experience which features in his literary work.

Throughout his career, he has seen the publication of nine of his books, the production of seven plays, and four further radio plays.

Among his achievements are an MBE, which he received in 2010, and being elected chancellor of the University of Manchester in 2015.

While in the position, he set up a bursary scheme to boost the number of black law students in 2017.

He also became a member of the board of trustees of the Foundling Museum - which tells the story of the Foundling Hospital, Britain's first home for children at risk of being abandoned.

In 2019 he was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize for authors who take an "unflinching, unswerving" look at the world.

Mr Sissay has appeared numerous times on television, including in the Southbank Show and BBC shows Grumpy Old Men, Winter Walks, and Have I Got News For You, as well as being a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live programme.

After receiving his honour for services to literature and charity from the Prince of Wales, the poet and playwright said: “If I had said to him that one day you will be in Windsor Castle to receive an OBE from Prince Charles, I would never have believed that kind of magical story – almost fairy tale – would happen.”

He added: “If you can go to that boy – who lost his family, who left children’s homes at 18 years of age and didn’t know anybody for longer than a year at that age and had spent all of those Christmases alone – if you were going to say to that child that, ‘In your adulthood you are going to be honoured for what it is that you do and who it is that you are but you have got to turn it down…’

“I just could not do that to him. This is a way of being able to honour service and what you were born to be. I was born to be a poet.

“The service is the work (I have done) for care leavers and it has come from my own experience.”