A church worker living with terminal cancer has been named in the New Year Honours list for her campaign to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Charity founder Dr Ann-Marie Wilson was made an MBE  “for services to the prevention of violence against women and girls.”

In 2010, Ann-Marie founded the charity 28 Too Many, which sets out to end FGM in 28 African Countries and the diaspora, where the practice is prevalent.

In the same year, she became a mission partner with Church Mission Society.

In 2017, Ann-Marie was licensed as a lay pioneer in her church, St Barnabas, East Finchley, by Bishop of Edmonton Rob Wickham.

She has achieved widespread change by building on more than 3,000 FGM survivors’ stories.

She is a global expert FGM advisor to the United Nations, the World Bank and the Metropolitan Police, among others.

Following 28 Too Many’s legal report Sudan: The Law and FGM, the practice has now been outlawed in the country, where it is estimated 87% of girls and women between 15 and 49 years have undergone FGM.

Since April 2020, FGM in Sudan is punishable with three-year prison terms for its perpetrators.

It was a meeting Ann-Marie had in 2005 with a Sudanese girl called Fatima, who was cut at the age of five, that led to a life-changing decision to take up the FGM cause.

She resigned from a London-based profession to begin campaigning. She recalled: “I met Fatima when she was a 10-year-old, yet already seven months pregnanthaving been raped by armed militia.

"We cared for her and gave her a safe delivery at the Christian medical hospital in West Darfur, at which I was working. 

"In my lifetime, the work of the charity Fatima inspired me to establish, has given her a law to protect her grandchildren.”

Dr Ann-Marie was diagnosed with incurable non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in 2015.

The Bishop of Truro, Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen, said: “Ann-Marie is truly inspirational. 

"In the face of significant challenges she has been an indefatigable campaigner, faithfully pursuing God’s call to champion the rights and dignity of some of the world’s most vulnerable women. 

"I’m in awe of all she’s done and this honour is a fitting and hugely well-deserved recognition.”

The story of her charity’s work is published in her book, Overcoming – My fight against FGM, published by SPCK in 2021.