IT has been an exciting year for battling grandmother Jenny Kent.

Mrs Kent, 66, of Ethronvi Road, Bexleyheath, has just been to Buckingham Palace receive her MBE for services to gymnastics, from the Queen, awarded in the birthday honours list.

Mrs Kent is the champion of the Europa Gym Club in Erith and has been central to its battle for survival.

Another of her proudest moments came last month when Lord Coe visited the gym in Fraser Road to announce not only was the gym moving to a new purpose-built home in Crayford, but the new centre had been selected as an in-Games training centre for volleyball, for the London 2012 Olympics.

She said: “I told the Queen ‘As one grandmother to another I wish you well for the wedding next year’.”

Mrs Kent also met some of the soldiers badly wounded during their service in Afghanistan.

She said: “It makes you feel very humble when you see what they have lost.”

Mrs Kent took her daughters Claire and Tracey and her husband Len with her, and they celebrated afterwards with a champagne lunch.