The CEO and Founder of the Mental Health Motorbike charity , Paul Oxborough has been awarded an OBE as part of the King’s Birthday Honours List for services to charity and mental health.
The 56-year-old rider started the organisation in October 2019 following the passing of his friend, 38-year-old Dale Caffrey, by suicide.
The group has since trained more than 1250 bikers in mental health first aid and runs an online support group with over 5000 members too. On top of this, the MHM team now have a presence across the country, with volunteers attending around 500 events a year.
Oxborough dedicated the honour to his late friend Dale, and all those affected by suicide. Speaking to MCN following the official announcement, he said: “It was very much out of the blue, not at all expected.
“I found out the last week of April; I’d been out with my friends for a few beers, and post saying ‘On His Majesty’s Service’ had arrived. I couldn’t actually read it when I opened it up, my wife says I turned white and started shaking!”
But Oxborough doesn’t yet know when he’ll be off to the Palace, adding: “The announcement comes out in the London Gazette, and then they say it could be from two to six months before the investiture when you meet the King, or Prince William, or Princess Anne.”
Mental Health Motorbike aims to promote the wellbeing benefits of motorcycling, provide a network of support for bikers, by bikers and improve wellbeing within the motorcycling community.
“We lost Dale, and we made a promise at his funeral to try and stop this happening to others,” the Founder continued. “Sadly, the suicide rate is shocking; you’re looking at about 7000 people a year, and for every suicide, 123 people on average are affected by that suicide. So that’s about a million people every year that are affected by the loss of those people.”
Oxborough hopes that this award will help the charity spread the word more widely, adding: “I think we will get more interest. It’s a great validation that people are saying, you know, that this charity is doing good work.”
There was another big name from the biking world named in the Birthday Honours List too. Top DJ Carl Cox – who sponsors a number of riders and teams including Michael Dunlop’s TT efforts – was also made an OBE, for services to music.
Anyone in need of help and guidance can visit either Mental Health Motorbike or the Samaritans website today.
It’s great to see Paul’s efforts being recognised in such a way. Here’s hoping this will raise the profile of the group further, to help them empower more motorcycles to support others in need.
MCN Photojournalist and road tester - Over 30 years experience, having ridden most bikes from a Honda V5 MotoGP bike to electric commuters, and everything in between. Known to spin a spanner from time to time as well, he currently has a turbo charged Kawasaki ZRX1100 with full Öhlins shock and carbon wheels on the bench.
A 30-year veteran freelancer who started writing about motorbikes on the MCN news desk back in 1997.