A FORMER North-East woman dedicated to caring for the poor in Latin America has had her work recognised.

Clare Dixon, originally from Hartlepool, has been awarded the Chilean Silva Henriquez Medal for her human rights work.

The award is the Chilean church's highest honour for humanitarian work in its country.

Clare, 50, who still regularly visits her family in her home town, is the head of the Latin American section of the Catholic aid agency, Cafod.

She got a massive shock when she went along to meet some Cafod partners in Santiago, only to find a packed auditorium filled with people she had worked with over the 25 years she has been with the group.

She said: "I was really overwhelmed. I feel both humbled and enormously privileged to have been able to work for Chile and to have learned so much from Cafod's partners there over the years."

Clare, who was educated at St Joseph's Convent in Hartlepool, became involved in the country in the 1970s working with refugees for the Chile Committee for Human Rights and went on to lead Cafod's Chile programme.