IPSWICH Town FC chairman David Sheepshanks is to be awarded an honorary degree from Suffolk College.The Blues chief will join champion jockey Bob Champion and actress Helen Fraser in receiving the honour during October's graduation ceremonies.

IPSWICH Town FC chairman David Sheepshanks is to be awarded an honorary degree from Suffolk College.

The Blues chief will join champion jockey Bob Champion and actress Helen Fraser in receiving the honour during October's graduation ceremonies.

Eastern Angles artistic director Ivan Cutting and The Dominic Barker Trust will also be presented with honorary degrees, which are affiliated to the University of East Anglia.

The honours are given to individuals with a national or international reputation who have either made a significant contribution to Ipswich or Suffolk or have a strong connection with the area.

Mr Sheepshanks, who has been chairman of Ipswich Town for nine years, is a successful businessman who built up local firm Suffolk Foods from scratch with his brother, Rick. The firm now employs 130 people.

The old Etonian is a member of both the Football Association and Football League main boards, being a former chairman of the Football League.

He is also a founder chairman of the ITFC Education and Sports Trust, a founder trustee of the Community Foundation for Suffolk, patron of the Ipswich and East Suffolk branch of the Samaritans and president of the Ipswich Citizens' Advice Bureau.

Mr Sheepshanks will be awarded a honorary doctorate of civil law.

Mr Champion, who lives in Newmarket, fought and overcame cancer and went on to win the Grand National in 1981.

He set up the Bob Champion Cancer Trust in 1983, which has raised £6million to support research and patient-related support in the treatment and ultimate eradication of male cancers. He will be presented with an honorary doctorate of civil law.

Suffolk resident Ms Fraser also receives an honorary doctorate of civil law. She has starred in numerous films and TV shows, most recently in the acclaimed series Bad Girls.

Mr Cutting will be awarded an honorary doctorate of letters. He is the artistic director and chief executive of successful Ipswich-based theatre company Eastern Angles, and has directed most of the company's work over the past 20 years.

The Dominic Barker Trust, a charity known as Dom's Fund, was set up in memory of a young man who took his life because of the burden of his stammering.

The Holbrook-based trust funds research into stammering, including ongoing work based at Suffolk College.

It will receive an honorary doctorate of civil law and will be the first trust of its kind to receive such an award from the UEA.

It is hoped trust chairman Sir Malcolm Pill will receive the award on behalf of the trust.

The honours will be presented at the Higher Education graduation ceremonies on October 27 and 28.