A Helston mother who put herself in the path of danger to protect others is to receive a special award at this year’s Cornish Gorsedh ceremony.

Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, from Bulwark Road, will be presented with a ‘special certificate of exceptional endeavour’ in Penryn this Saturday.

It is after she confronted a blood-soaked man wielding a meat cleaver in Woolwich, London, in the aftermath of the death of soldier Drummer Lee Rigby.

In a citation from the Gorsedh Kernow Council, it is states: “‘Heroine’ is too simplistic a term these days when ‘megastar’ or ‘celebrity’ appear in a ‘Thesaurus’ – certainly ‘distinguished by extraordinary courage’ is more appropriate here, when Ingrid’s actions in confronting an [alleged] assassin and comforting a dying British soldier outside his Woolwich Barracks in London, sparing no thought for her own safety, was paramount.”

Ms Loyau-Kennett, who is half French, has already been presented a bravery medal from the French government and more than 85,000 people have signed a petition calling for the British government to do the same.