A Keele University professor, who became one of the country's leading experts in her field after seeing an advert in a Job Centre window, has received an MBE from the Princess Royal.

Professor Emerita Miriam Bernard was awarded the honour in the King's New Year Honours list in recognition for services to ageing research and to older people.

She admits she ended up working in the field of ageing research 'completely by accident' but has now been awarded one of the nation's top honours after devoting more than 40 years of her life to improving the lives of older people through research, education and policy.

Miriam, who attended a ceremony at Windsor Castle to formally receive her award, said: "I was happy to be presented with my award by Princess Anne and to be able, once again, to acknowledge the many colleagues, students and older people with whom I have worked. Celebrating in the company of close family, at the beginning of spring, certainly made the ceremony an occasion to remember.

"People often ask how I ended up in ageing and the answer is, by accident. I was nearing the end of my PhD and, because the funding had run out, I was unemployed. Early in 1982, I went to the Job Centre in Newcastle-under-Lyme, where I saw a postcard-sized advert in the window for a person to lead a small research team for a local charity. Going inside to find out more, all they could tell me was that it was for the Beth Johnson Foundation. I rang up, attended an interview a couple of days later, and they asked me to start the following Monday."

Miriam left the Foundation and joined Keele's recently established Centre for Social Gerontology in 1988 to help set up – and teach on - the first postgraduate programmes in Gerontology outside of London. She was promoted to Senior Lecturer in October 1995, Reader in September 1997 and, in May 1999, was awarded a personal Chair.

At Keele, she undertook research on women's lives as they age, on intergenerational relations and family life, on working carers, and on retirement community living. Then, from 2009, she led a series of highly successful Ages and Stages projects, a collaboration between Keele and the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme. These projects led to the creation of the Ages and Stages Theatre Company, which is still running now, and the Live Age Festival.

Miriam, an author and editor of 10 books in her field, retired from her role at Keele in 2018 and is now a volunteer audio describer at the New Vic Theatre.