Local heroes to be honoured at BBC awards night

Eight community champions were honoured at last year's event in Chatham

Community heroes across Kent are set to be honoured at a BBC awards ceremony.

The fourth BBC Radio Kent Make A Difference Awards is set to take place on Monday night at Canterbury's Malthouse Theatre.

Nominations took place earlier this year with four finalists selected across each of the eight categories.

The categories are: Volunteer, Young Hero, Great Neighbour, Active, Animal, Green, Fundraiser and Community Group.

The 2025 awards will be hosted by BBC Radio Kent presenters Dominic King and Sophie Sutton.

Make A Difference launched at the beginning of the Covid pandemic in March 2020, as a virtual notice board for those able to offer help and those needing support.

To date, more than 10m people have got involved in Make a Difference across local and national BBC radio stations.

Among the finalists in Kent, in the Community Group category, is Gravesham-based charity the Elliott Holmes Memorial Fund.

Co-founders Kerry Holmes and her husband Peter Scutts set up the charity in memory of Kerry's son, Elliott, who took his own life.

The pair told BBC Radio Kent that last year saw more than 6,000 people from the community raise money for the service, which funds counselling for young people.

Finalists Peter Scutts and Kerry Holmes have been raising funds to provide counselling to young people in memory of Ms Holmes's son Elliott

Ms Holmes said: "We've helped just over 400 young people in the last three years."

Speaking of her late son, she said: "The one thing I really miss, is being called mum, so I wouldn't want any parent to go through what we've had to go through."

Hannah Waugh, from Whitstable has raised more than £36,000 for various cancer charities

In the Active category, Crossfit Hunta gym, based in Marden, is a finalist.

The fitness centre was nominated by Maurice Price for its in help in keeping his terminally ill daughter active until the final stages of bowel cancer.

Mr Price said: "She could come here and she was with a bunch of people who were just part of ordinary [life], but beyond that [she] was staying as physically strong as possible to be able to make the most of every day."

Meanwhile, Hannah Waugh, from Whitstable, is a finalist in the fundraiser category and has spent 20 years raising more than £36,000 for Cancer Research, Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research and Fight Bladder Cancer after her father was diagnosed.

Ms Waugh said: "We all need to be raising money to make sure that people get the right research put into their cancer survival."

You can hear the stories of all 32 of this year's finalists here.