Daily Mirror celebrates fundraisers in 2017 Pride of Britain Awards
Melanie May | 3 November 2017 | News
The Daily Mirror has unveiled its 2017 Pride of Britain Award winners, with a number of awards going to fundraisers.
The Pride of Britain Awards are now in their 19th year, and celebrate the UK’s unsung heroes. This year, Jake Coates won ITV Fundraiser of the Year, for raising £140,000 for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity through a 2,000km bike ride from London to Copenhagen with his wife Emmy, who has since died of thyroid cancer.
Dilys Price won a Special Recognition Award. Aged 85, the founder of the Touch Trust Charity made her first parachute jump at the age of 54 and has now completed more than 1,139 jumps for charity, raising tens of thousands of pounds.
What a week! Thank you for awarding me the special recognition #award @PrideOfBritain . It goes to show we should Never give up! #Wales pic.twitter.com/7wT6V5B3rl
— Dilys Price OBE (@DilysPriceOBE) November 2, 2017
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Eleven-year-old George Mathias won the Good Morning Britain Fundraiser Award. After his baby brother almost died from bronchiolitis, George decided to run a mile for every month his brother had been alive to thank Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. He continued past his goal of 75 miles and is now on his 99th and has attracted the attention of a number of celebrities: Steven Gerrard, John Bishop and Jason Manford have all run a mile with him, helping him raise more than £35,000 for Alder Hey so far.
Fraser Johnston (pictured) won TSB Community Partner, for his initiative that takes elderly people out on bike rides. Johnston started community group ‘Cycling Without Age Falkirk’ in March 2016 to take elderly people from care homes in the area out in specially designed trishaws which have a seat for two fastened to the front. The aim of the initiative is to get the elderly out and about and to help jog their memories from the past. To date Fraser and his team of 30 volunteers have taken out over 150 care home residents, all aged over 85. After a video of Fraser taking some elderly people for a cycle went viral and gained over 15 million views, he started a crowdfunding page, which has now raised £43,492 for the scheme.
Paul Pester, CEO, TSB said:
“The Pride of Britain Awards recognise the people up and down the country who do extraordinary things each and every day for the people and the communities around them. Congratulations to this year’s TSB Community Partner Award winner, Fraser Johnston, he has had an incredible effect on his community and I know he is a real inspiration to everyone around him.”
Fraser Johnston, TSB Community Partner Award winner, said:
“It’s a massive honour to be given the TSB Community Partner Award. Hopefully other people will see what myself and the team are doing and they’ll be inspired to get involved in their own communities. Taking the older generation out on our trishaws doesn’t just give them fresh air and a chance to chat – it makes them feel less isolated and a part of society again. It’s not about the destination, for them it’s about the journey.”
This year’s awards will be broadcast at 8pm on 7 November on ITV.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.