Make a Difference Awards: Sussex and Surrey community champions honoured

The winners were presented with their awards at a ceremony

Volunteers and community champions from across Sussex and Surrey have been honoured at a BBC awards ceremony.

The Make a Difference awards celebrate the contributions made by carers, fundraisers, key workers and charities.

Among the winners were a 90-year-old who has raised over a quarter of a million pounds, and a choir for people with communication difficulties.

Winner Shirley Price MBE said: "When I saw the other people I thought, 'well, they definitely will get it.'

"It came as a total out of the blue shock."

Ms Price, who won in the Fundraiser category did a wing walk at the age of 75, a parachute jump at 80 and a paraglide at 85.

She is now planning another wing walk when she reaches 91 and a half, which would make her the oldest woman in the world to have done so.

Shirley Price receiving her fundraiser award from BBC Sussex

The winners were:

• Volunteer: Penny Kirk from Oxted, who runs two not-for-profit playgroups, and has also collected and distributed donations for Ukrainian refugees

• Community Group: Sonal Sher, who set up Knaphill, St John's and Brookwood Volunteers in Woking in March 2020, a group of 200 people who run errands and collect charity donations

• Fundraiser: Shirley Price MBE, who is 90, has raised over £250,000 for East Sussex Vision Support, including doing a parachute jump, wing walk and hang gliding over Mont Blanc

• Carer: Jason Brown, a school office worker, for going above and beyond to help pupils who have type 1 diabetes take an active role in school life

• Great Neighbour: Sue Goodall, a supermarket worker from Wick, near Littlehampton, who delivered groceries to elderly customers during lockdown, snacks to paramedics and charity donations to Ukrainian refugees living in the area

• Key Worker: Louise Miller, a specialist case worker at the women's substance misuse charity Oasis Project in Brighton, who took on personal caseloads of up to 70 people at a time, as demand rocketed during lockdown

• Environmental Award: The Surrey Choices Growth Team, 16 supported volunteers with autism or learning disabilities, who help preserve the county's pathways, woodlands and other habitats

• Together Award: The Include Choir from Surrey, a choir for people with communication and understanding difficulties

Alix Lewer, the speech and language specialist who set up the Include Choir, said it had been "a long journey and it's been not the easiest.

"To see the recognition of how much people with communication difficulties can give to the community and that recognition that we are all the same, even if we need a bit of help with a communication, it means a huge amount to me.

"We use Makaton signing and the sign for together is the same as include, so it seems very fitting."

Alix Lewer (left), founder of the Include Choir, said the recognition meant "a huge amount"

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