A CAMPAIGNING Stokenchurch resident has been named a modern day St George after he helped re-establish a community centre.

Derick Randall, from Britnell Court, was nominated for the unsung hero award by Kerry Kelleher for his tireless work to get Studley Green Community Centre opened.

He has now been named Buckinghamshire's modern day St George by tourism board Enjoy England and gets to hold his title for a year.

Mr Randall, 68, helped to get the centre in Wycombe Road back on its feet after it became derelict and was boarded up ten years ago. A committee was formed to spearhead the refurbishment work and it was through this that Mrs Kelleher, 50, from Studley Green, met Mr Randall.

She said: "There wasn't much hope of it re-opening and it was largely down to him that it re-opened, he's just a fantastic man.

"He's just a real stalwart of the community and just helps out without expecting anything in return and everyone's really grateful to him, but he's the kind of man who gets embarrassed if people say thank you too much.

"It's been very successful for the past ten years thanks to a few hardworking people, we have regular events there every week. It's just so much improved and somewhere for local people to go, because we have no pub here in Studley Green. If we didn't have that it would be terrible."

The community centre now plays host to various activities including a youth club, mother and toddler group and an art group.

Mr Randall, a retired maintenance manager, has helped with the fundraising for the centre since day one with his wife Jean, 67. He said: "I wasn't expecting it at all, it was a surprise. Any community facility if it can be resurrected needs to be, but we had to do a lot of hard work to get to that stage."

Mr Randall showed off his bronze award to committee members at their annual meeting in May after it was sent to him by Enjoy England.