SHE’S gone from the classrooms of Cardross Primary School and Hermitage Academy to being the TV face of some of the world’s biggest sporting events – and now to a place on the New Year honours list.

Hazel Irvine was made an MBE when the list was issued on Friday “for services to sport and to charity” – with the list specifically citing her roles as “sports presenter and honorary president of Enable Scotland”.

The 58-year-old has been part of the TV presenting team for every Olympic Games – summer and winter – bar one since Seoul in 1988, and was co-commentator, alongside Trevor Nelson, for the opening ceremony when the Games came to London in 2012.

Enable Scotland is the country’s largest charity dedicated to helping children and adults who have a learning disability.

It’s well known for its work with people in the Helensburgh area, where it’s had an active presence since Rachel Buchanan and Jean Jahoda co-founded the local branch - now based on the corner of Sinclair Street and West Princes Street - way back in November 1960.

Enable Scotland is also the lead partner in Jean’s Bothy, the community mental health hub located on the corner of East and South Princes Street in Helensburgh.

Officially opened in 2018, Jean’s Bothy is run in partnership with the Argyll and Bute health and social care partnership, the Ministry of Defence and the Argyll and Bute Third Sector Interface.

READ MORE: Enable Scotland Helensburgh campaigners say their fight for equal rights goes on

Hazel, who returned to Cardross Primary back in 2017 to open the school’s annual gala day, is also a long-standing supporter of several community groups in Helensburgh, and visited the town four years ago to speak at the annual afternoon tea organised by the local branch of Save The Children.

But beyond Helensburgh it’s her TV work for which she’s best known, with her 37 years in sports broadcasting having begun on STV’s Scotsport programme way back in October 1987.

Since joining the BBC in 1990, she has presented the corporation’s coverage of golf, snooker and athletics, as well as those summer and winter Olympics and the Commonwealth Games.

Speaking to the Advertiser on that 2019 visit to the Save The Children fund-raiser at Helensburgh Sailing Club, Hazel spoke of her delight at the growing opportunities for women in both sport and broadcasting since she first stepped in front of a camera all those years ago.

“We’re getting towards a more level playing field – or a more equal opportunity for women and boys to be involved in sport, to take part and to be inspired, not just by male role models but by female role models as well," she said.

“And that’s surely as it should be.

"We are by our very nature an equal society. There are as many women as men. And surely there should be as many opportunities for us all.”

Meanwhile, Conservative politician Pam Gosal, who represents the Helensburgh and Lomond area as a regional MSP for the West of Scotland, was made an MBE for services to business, to racial equality, and to charity in Milton Keynes.

And former Argyll and Bute Council chief executive Sally Loudon was made an OBE for services to local government.

Ms Loudon spent seven years as the local authority's top paid official before moving on in 2016  to become chief executive of local government umbrella body COSLA - a role from which she retired in July of last year.