WHEN Dr Bob Woodward was awarded an OBE he made sure his day included one thing – a tribute to the son who inspired him to help children with cancer and leukaemia.

Known to all as Bob, the founder of CLIC, registered his full name of Robert in honour of his son, who died in 1977 aged 11.

“I wanted Robert’s name to be called out in the investiture hall at Windsor Castle. It was a lovely moment, one of the highlights of the day,” Mr Woodward said. “This was all for Robert. He was such a beautiful son. When he died it left such a huge gap in our family so hearing his name was very poignant.”

Just after Robert was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, Mr Woodward, from Frenchay, saw parents of sick children sleeping on the hospital floor because they lived too far away to be able to travel home.

“So many families were curled up on the floor. It was barbaric. Our family was being torn apart. Our pain was almost unbearable but their pain was even greater than ours. I could hardly bear to think about them.”

Within a month, Mr Woodward, who was a builder, furnished the Frenchay bungalow he was planning to renovate and let those families use it – the first of his Home From Home houses which now stretch from Edinburgh to Land’s End, and Budapest.

Mr Woodward, 81, has put in 40 years with CLIC - which merged with another charity to become CLIC Sargent - including instigating a model of care and a research centre.

He has attended more than 300 funerals of children lost to cancer and leukaemia and kept going even when Mr and Mrs Woodward lost another son, Hugh, who died from a cardiac arrest at four years old.

He has also been stopped in the street by a boy who recovered from a brain tumour, and a woman who told him her parents often spoke of the hours he spent sitting with them when she was sick.

The charity founder was chauffeured to collect his OBE by his eldest son, James, with his wife Judy and daughter Rachel by his side.

“Windsor was decked out with Christmas decorations that were in a league of their own and inside all the guards were on duty standing all the way up the stairs – it was the stuff of fairy tales.

“You are given instructions, take four steps forward at the nod of the head, toes right up to the platform and Her Majesty pins on the medal.

“Her Majesty was quite taken aback to hear I founded the charity way back in 1976 – I wondered if she was thinking, ‘why haven’t I seen you before?’,” Bob says with a chuckle.

“They don’t come any more ordinary than me and I couldn’t have done this without all the sacrifices my family have made and a whole army of very committed people, the CLIC family – they’re all just magical.”