Friday 6 April 2018

Celebrating our Community Champions

I was delighted to hold an event at Walwick Hall earlier this week in celebration of some of the winners of my Hexham Constituency Community Champion Awards. I started the awards last year with the aim of recognising some of the extraordinary achievements of people around the Hexham constituency, and everyone who attended the event has made a wonderful difference to their local communities.

One of the highlights of the afternoon was undoubtedly presenting Elsie Frazer with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Elsie was a domestic at Hexham Hospital, before becoming a community carer with Helping Hands. She joined Hexham Hospital’s Hospital Volunteer Service in 2007 as a Meet and Greet volunteer, undertaking three shifts per week. Elsie still does two shifts every week, providing a valuable first point of contact for visitors. She has also completed training for guiding blind and partially sighted visitors and plays a vital role in the induction and training of new volunteers at the hospital. Elsie also brings some much-needed companionship by visiting patients as part of the Wellbeing Volunteer Programme and she regularly attends volunteering events in the local area. When asked why she volunteers, Elsie says it is because of “the satisfaction of helping people”. Elsie is an incredible lady who devotes her time to helping others and it was an honour to present her with the award.

I really enjoyed the afternoon celebrating some amazing people who all thoroughly deserve to be recognised for the work they do. I would also like to thank Gareth Jones at Red Hot Property for his continued sponsorship of the awards. If you know someone you think deserves a Community Champion Award, please do get in touch and nominate them.