After receiving an OBE in the King's Birthday Honours, a former music teacher who is also living with dementia says he is "over the moon.".
After a song he wrote reached number one on the iTunes and Amazon music charts, Paul Harvey, 83, raised more than £1.5 million for dementia services.
After receiving four notes from his son Nick Harvey, Mr. Harvey, of Buxted, East Sussex, composed the piece.
The funds were donated to Music For Dementia and the Alzheimer's Society.
Even after receiving his diagnosis, Mr. Harvey was still able to recall and compose new piano pieces.
His son claimed that asking for four random notes and then improvising a song was his father's "old party trick.".
After being given four arbitrary notes to play on the piano by his son, Mr. Harvey improved the composition Four Notes.
Following the BBC broadcast of his composition, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra added its accompaniment to the original phone audio to help produce a single.
The OBE of his father, according to Nick Harvey, 51, is "really, really great, and dad is over the moon.".
He is incredibly honored but still struggles to comprehend what has happened. ".
"It's a tremendous honor," Paul Harvey said on BBC Breakfast. It kind of surprises me. ".
It's a fairy-tale conclusion to an amazing story, according to Nick Harvey.
"Dad has had such a journey, starting with four tiny little notes and ending with raising all that money for charity and receiving an OBE.
"As a family, we could not be more pleased. ".
He claimed that when his father received a letter from the Cabinet Office informing him of the honor, he "was moved to tears.".
According to Mr. Harvey, his father had a whisky in his coffee to celebrate.
"Musical memory is the last thing to go if you're living with dementia," he said. "I've learned that over the last few years.
"Having the ability to access that is very important. It is absolutely transformative when the right song is played at the right time. It might bring them back to the present moment. ".
According to Paul Harvey, "music can take you wherever you want to go."
