New Year MBE honour for Crazy Hats charity founder Glennis Hooper

She’s been known as ‘One Crazy Lady’, but now Wellingborough’s Glennis Hooper, the founder of the charity Crazy Hats, will be Crazy Lady MBE.

Glennis, 69, has been honoured for charitable services to people with breast cancer, masterminding charity events to raise more than £3m.

The former headteacher, whose career was cut short after being diagnosed, says it’s an ‘absolute honour’ to receive the award but wants everyone who helped Crazy Hats to share the accolade.

She said: “ It’s an absolute honour. I feel very proud of everybody at Crazy Hats. It’s about us as a team - all the volunteers, all the businesses who supported us every person who donated - even just a single penny.”

Paying tribute to charity co-founder Marilyn Clapham who died from breast cancer in November 2022, Glennis said she thought of her as soon as she opened the letter from the Cabinet Office.

She said: “It’s also for Marilyn. She was there from day one with me. She was there in Debenhams that first day trying on hats. It’s about us as a team.”

Using her teaching background and boundless energy to share her breast cancer ‘story’, Glennis and her team ended up raising £3.5m for breast cancer patients.

She decided to raise funds to help others, focusing on ‘crazy’ hats as she often used hats to disguise her hair loss after treatment.

What started as a one-time event grew into a widespread movement, providing financial support for all breast cancer support stages in Northamptonshire, including the provision of specialised equipment for hospitals throughout the region.

During the charity’s two decades, Glennis spearheaded 17 sponsored walks at Kettering's Wicksteed Park, as well as hundreds of smaller events.

Over the 20 years of the Crazy Hats Breast Cancer Appeal, she successfully raised £3.5.m until its final donation in December 2021. She cut the ribbon on the final project earlier this month – The Crazy Hats Lounge at Kettering General Hospital.

She said: “This is the cherry on the top of the cake. We wanted breast cancer care to the best it could be. We have done what we could and now it’s a celebration for everybody.

"I hope we have left a legacy.”