Falklands War veteran Simon Weston has been awarded the CBE in the New Year’s Honours list.
The former Welsh Guard, who was born in Nelson, has been recognised for his charitable work and joins two other Caerphilly County Borough people also being honoured.
Mr Weston was horrifically injured on board the Sir Galahad ship 1982 and has since dedicated his life to charity work. He had already been awarded an OBE.
He told BBC Wales: “I’ve been so very, very fortunate to have a world surround me that has been so very positive and has encouraged me to do as much as I wanted to do.
“But probably the biggest inspiration comes from my mother and latterly my wife. Those people have backed me in whatever I’ve wanted to do as long as I was willing to do it properly.
“I hope I’ve done that and I suppose recognition now is proof that it’s been done as well as it could be.”
He added: “To be given the CBE for charity work means a great deal to me because it’s something that I have been very passionate about over the past 33 years.
“I still have to pinch myself. I’m just a boy from a coal mining village in the Valleys.”
Steve Logan, Station Commander at Caerphilly Fire Station, has been made an MBE for his role in donating old fire engines to Serbia.
The Blazing to Serbia project was set up in 2011 by Mr Logan, and helps developing fire brigades in Serbia gain access to modern firefighting equipment that has been retired in Wales.
In the four years of the project, 24 fire engines have been donated to Serbia and Bosnia.
Mr Logan, who completed his 18th journey driving an old engine overseas last year, said he was delighted at the honour but also slightly embarrassed.
He said: “I do what we do because it’s the right thing to do and we don’t do it for the recognition and that’s why I’m slightly embarrassed by it.”
Mr Logan praised the team of volunteers behind the Blazing to Serbia project and said it would not have been possible without them.
He added: “There is an old saying: ‘When the tide comes in, all the boats rise together’ and I’m hoping that the recognition I’ve received in the New Year’s Honours rubs off on the projects that we are involved with through Blazing to Serbia.”
Nelson fruit and veg shopkeeper Robert Brain was awarded an MBE for raising in excess of £200,000 for more than 50 charities over the last 20 years.
Known as Bob, Mr Brain has taken part in 44 marathons, including two in New York, and climbed mountains all over the world for the charities.
He told Caerphilly Observer that he never set out with a grand plan to fundraise, and that it was “just something that came around”.
He opened his fruit and veg shop in 1991 after being a miner and could no longer play rugby on Saturdays, as he had to open the shop.
He explained: “I thought I’d better start keeping fit and I started jogging and it’s all gone from there really.”
He added: “I’m over the moon with the honour and really taken aback.”