FOR a combined 200 years they have given their time to help others.

Now four volunteers from the Rotary Club of Wantage have been honoured with High Sheriff ’s Awards.

Ian Campbell, 88, John Humphries, 78, Hugh Chamberlain, 98, and Derek Miller, 78, were given the accolade for achieving an impressive two centuries of volunteering between them.

Mr Campbell, who co-founded the club in 1962, recalled raising £5,000 in 1968 for Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital to buy two heart monitors.

The former optician, who lives with his daughter in Roman Way, Wantage, said the money came from the proceeds of a competition that asked residents to guess how far a car could travel on one litre of petrol.

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He said the fundraising scheme was devised as a tribute to the club’s co-founder Dinnis Clegg, who died from a heart condition in 1967.

Mr Campbell said: “Because of Dinnis, we wanted to help so we got in touch with a specialist treating him.

“We said ‘is there anything we can do?’ and he said ‘what we really want is a heart-monitor machine’.”

Mr Humphries, a former milk distribution business manager, said £150,000 was raised by the club’s charity golf days.

But the grandad-of-nine, who lives in Wantage, said: “I did not do it to get an award, I did it to help people.”

Mr Chamberlain, a 98-year-old former solicitor who joined the club a year after moving to Wantage in 1962, said: “We sent poor people on holiday, so you feel like you are helping the community.”

Mr Miller, a grandad-of-nine who has lived in Wantage since he was born, played a key role in charity spring feasts.

He said: “I just felt I would like to give something back.”

High Sheriff of Oxfordshire Tony Stratton said: “To have four people who have done 200 years is extraordinary and something I have never come across before.

“I am very proud of them. They are the pillars of the community.”