Sports stars, entertainers and Covid-19 pioneers are celebrated in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

SUNDERLAND-BORN footballer Jordan Henderson has received an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

The Liverpool captain and former Sunderland midfielder, a Champions League and Premier League winner in the last two years, has been honoured for his sporting exploits.

But it is also recognition for his part in forming a charitable fund, Players Together, which supported NHS good causes during the first coronavirus pandemic lockdown last spring.

Henderson said he was “humbled” by the award and insisted he was only part of a movement among with his Premier League counterparts, and he dedicated his honour to NHS staff.

He thanked those who made the initiative a success and added: “But the true heroes are the NHS staff. They put themselves in harm’s way to serve and protect us.

“Therefore I dedicate this to all the nurses, doctors, carers, porters, admin workers, cleaners, security personnel and every single individual who devotes their career and their lives to making the NHS the part of British life we are rightly most proud of as a nation.”

Henderson is one of four names on the list with connections to the England men’s football team.

Roy Hodgson, 73, who managed his country in two European Championships, in 2012 and 2016 and also led England at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, is awarded a CBE.

Current Three Lions international Raheem Sterling and former England midfielder Geoff Thomas both receive MBEs.

Sue Barker and Kevin Sinfield are among other leading names from the world of sport to be recognised.

In music, pop star and one-time Eurovision winner Lulu is also honoured with a CBE alongside keyboardist and songwriter Rick Wakeman whose career has seen him collaborate with David Bowie, Cat Stevens and Black Sabbath.

And veteran performer Engelbert Humperdinck is made MBE for services to music.

Singer Alison Moyet is also made an MBE, while cellist Julian Lloyd-Webber, brother of West End impresario Andrew Lloyd-Webber, is recognised with an OBE for services to music.

Robert Rinder said being made an MBE on the same day as his mother has made the experience “all the richer and frankly the more beautiful”.

The barrister and TV judge, 43, is being honoured for services to Holocaust education and awareness, as is his mother Angela Cohen, who is chairwoman of the ‘45 Aid Society, a charity set up by a group of child Holocaust survivors in 1963.

Rinder, the star of reality show Judge Rinder, recently explored the stories of Jewish families in a BBC series and speaks regularly in schools alongside survivors.

Ms Cohen, meanwhile, has led the ‘45 Aid Society as it ensures the stories of those families are preserved through education, community and fundraising events.

The Repair Shop’s Jay Blades said he hopes his MBE will inspire others to take up craft and “achieve the unachievable”.

The furniture restorer and host of the BBC One show, 51, is recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for his services to craft.

Ex-Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips is made a dame, as is Great British Bake Off star Prue Leith.

Actor Jonathan Pryce, who will play the late Duke of Edinburgh in the final seasons of The Crown, said he was proud to be knighted, adding the arts showed people “the importance of debate and tolerance” in “these last few divisive years”.

The list recognises a multitude of specialists from across the scientific community for their pioneering efforts to develop vaccines, run clinical trials, deliver testing and track Covid cases.

The pioneering Oxford University scientists who took on the “high stakes endeavour” of combatting Covid-19 have shone a light on the life-saving work that sees them recognised on the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Researchers Sarah Gilbert, Andrew Pollard, Peter Horby, Martin Landray, Catherine Green, Teresa Lambe and Adrian Hill may not yet be household names, but all played integral roles in the development of a coronavirus vaccine and discovering new drug treatments.

The approval of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab in December came after experts worked at breakneck speed to turn the tide of the pandemic that had already taken a heavy toll.

Professor Sarah Gilbert becomes a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her key role in creating the Oxford University/AstraZeneca jab, which has gone into the arms of tens of millions of people around the world.

Venture capitalist Kate Bingham is similarly honoured after overseeing the procurement of the millions of vaccine doses now giving hope to the nation that the fight against the virus is being won.