"I WAS gobsmacked," said Frank Avenell on receiving his Spirit of Swindon award, which honours his tireless campaigning work.

The award was presented to the war veteran on the night of his 80th birthday.

Frank said: "I was completely astonished. I feel there are other people who do a lot more for Swindon but I am very pleased.

"The certificate will take pride of place on my mantelpiece."

Frank is a prolific contributor to the Evening Advertiser letters page and the man who battled with Swindon Borough Council for senior citizens to keep their bus and rail tokens.

He rallied pensioners in a series of protests after the decision was made to scrap the tokens.

His group, called the Fairness for Pensioners Campaign, collected a 2,000-name petition and lobbied council meetings.

Swindon Council wanted to save £13,000 a year by scrapping the tokens scheme. But Frank pointed out that Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott had pledged to find £25 million for local authorities to improve public transport schemes and council officers made a U-turn.

Frank, of Beckhampton Street, was a rail worker for 35 years after leaving the RAF in 1946.

He joined up when he was 17, two months before the outbreak of the Second World War.

In 1942 he was made a corporal and posted to Dorset as a founder member of 296 Squadron, 38 Wing.

Promotion to sergeant came in May 1943, and shortly afterwards Frank found himself flying out to North Africa, landing in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

Frank and his colleagues camped under canvas in the desert and were forced to fly back home while enemy fire was shooting down planes over the Bay of Biscay.

Frank is a member of the RAFA and the Royal British Legion.

He proudly wears his RAF Association badge every day and is just as proud of the fact that his family name is the oldest recorded in Swindon from the 11th century.

Frank is certainly well known to thousands of Evening Advertiser readers.

For five decades, his name has been a familiar feature at the bottom of letters to the paper.

His countless campaigns, conducted from his armchair in the back room of his terraced house, have covered a whole range of issues. Poll tax collectors, nightclub owners, politicians and leisure centre managers all know his name.

Nobody could care more about their home town than Frank, although he still thinks more work has to be done before we can hope to gain city status.

Nevertheless, Frank said he thinks the awards are very good for the morale of the town.

He said:"It shows that the local paper is involved with the community and following closely what is going on in the town."