Two Dudley borough volunteers have been chosen as coronation community champions and are invited to attend celebrations in London.

Vi Wood, who founded Leslie’s Care Packages and Madhu Basudev who volunteers for Sewa Day West Midlands are two of the 20 people chosen in the region as part of the community champions initiative.

The coronation champions initiative was launched by Her Majesty the Queen Consort and the Royal Voluntary Service to celebrate extraordinary volunteers across the country who have been contributing to their communities.

As champions they will each receive a specially designed official pin and signed certificate from His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen Consort.

They are also invited to attend one of the official coronation celebrations, including either the Windsor Castle coronation concert or coronation garden party.

Vi set up Leslie’s Care Packages in 2017 to support homeless and vulnerable people with food packages, vouchers for food, gas and electricity top ups, clothing, furniture and white goods.

For Sewa Day, Madhu volunteers her time in many ways including cooking weekly meals to support families, helps the elderly community with form filling and technology needs and also collects food from supermarkets to donate to foodbanks. Kevin O’Keefe, chief executive of Dudley Council, said:

“Congratulations to both Vi and Madhu for being nominated and chosen as two of the 500 Coronation Community Champions representing the voluntary sector across the UK.

“This weekend promises to be one to remember for us all but extra special for Vi and Madhu and rightly so.”

As part of this week’s celebrations, representatives from the West Midlands Lieutenancy will be visiting schools and colleges across the region, including Dudley College, Our Lady and St Kenelm Primary School and Gig Mill Primary School.