Briscoe was granted the honour in the Queen's Birthday Honours this summer, for her work with the BPA since joining the organisation in 2001, and she headed to the Royal residence today to receive her honorary medal.

She will head to Sochi 2014 next March as the Chef de Mission to the ParalympicsGB team, representing her sixth consecutive appearance at a Games as part of the British set-up since becoming director of performance services in 2002.

"It goes without saying that it is very humbling to receive such an honour, and that I could not have achieved this without the support of my family, the team at the BPA, our athletes and our many colleagues and supporters across the sporting landscape in the UK," said Briscoe, when she first heard the news earlier this year.

"In my time at the British Paralympic Association, I have been fortunate to be involved with some of the incredible developments of the Paralympic movement in this country and I have worked, with the rest of the team at the BPA, towards our goal of maintaining our position as a leading Paralympic nation despite increasing levels of international competition."

Alpine skier Kelly Gallagher will be looking to follow up her four medals at this years World Championships by securing a Paralympic medal at Sochi 2014 ©Getty Images

























Briscoe has been no stranger to competitive action herself having represented Britain for over 12 years as a canoeist at junior, under-23 and international level, before moving into coaching and attending the Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 Olympics as assistant coach to the British canoe slalom team.

After moving into Paralympic sport, Briscoe has acted as assistant Chef de Mission to the British team at Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010, London 2012 and was part of the senior management team at Turin 2006.

She has a tough job on her hands going into Sochi next year as the British team looks to secure its first Winter Paralympics medal since a wheelchiar curling silver at Turin 2006, following a blank sheet last time out in Vancouver.

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