BBC Make a Difference Awards: Wiltshire heroes honoured

The BBC Radio Wiltshire Make a Difference Awards winners

Eight community champions in Wiltshire have been announced as winners in an award scheme run by the BBC.

The awards celebrate local heroes who have been making a difference in their communities.

The winners received their accolade at a BBC awards ceremony on Sunday in Devizes.

"I feel very honoured and very humbled," said Lee Pearson, who won the Carer award for her work at Carers Café in Amesbury.

"I try to help people because I know how I would feel if I was in their situation as well," she told BBC Radio Wiltshire.

"It can be anything from shopping, taking them to doctors appointments, just listening.

"Every community needs people around them. There's loads of people out there helping people - and they don't realise they're helping."

The eight winners were:

• Volunteer: Sylvester Okoli, for his commitment to supporting the homeless and ex-offenders

• Community Group: The Footlights, an inclusive and welcoming volunteer dance and performance group from Trowbridge

• Fundraiser: Robin-Mark Schols, for overcoming his own illness to set up the Hilly Helmet Challenge - an annual race which raises money to support brain tumour research

• Carer: Lee Pearson, for tirelessly running a Carers Café crucial to carers in Amesbury

• Great Neighbour: Paul Gibbons, for coming to the rescue of someone who was very poorly

• Key Worker: Karen Whitehouse, for never stopping to take care of people both through her work and in her village

• Environmental Award: River Warriors, for getting youngsters committed to caring for, and improving, Calne's waterways

• Together Award: STEP Swindon, for supporting vulnerable young people across the town, and providing them with the skills to help them make a positive contribution to society

Sylvester Okoli, from Route Barbers in Swindon, says it felt "great" to have won the Volunteer award, which has inspired him to start doing more youth work.

He said it was his own time in prison that inspired him to make a change in the community.

"Prison wasn't where I ever planned to be but it was where I got to. It was a life-changing moment because it gave me time to think," he told BBC Radio Wiltshire.

"I wanted to look at ways I could make a change. Not just by cutting hair but also in the community - through the homeless haircut, or helping people struggling with drugs."

Sylvester Okoli (middle) at the BBC Radio Wiltshire Make A Difference Awards

Paul Gibbons won the Great Neighbour award after he came to the rescue of his neighbour Robin Page.

"I deliver post in West Swindon," he said. "I delivered to a gentleman and I'd been delivering there for the best part of five years.

"The pandemic hit and I'd not seen the gentleman for a while. I knew he had a bit of a condition. I thought I should bang on the door, and ask if there's anything he needs. Since then I've done shopping for him, got his medication for him.

"The journey's gone on from there. Now we can laugh and joke about football. He can come round for a Chinese, me and my partner go and see him.

"To see his face sometimes - it brings me to tears sometimes. I do it because I think it's the right and proper thing to do."

Neighbour award winner Paul Gibbons (l) and his friend Robin Page (r)

Key worker Karen Whitehouse receives her award

Tamzyn Long (l) receiving the Environmental Award alongside BBC Radio Wiltshire presenter Jill Misson

Tamzyn Long helped to set up the group River Warriors in Calne. She said: "I was often walking my dog and noticed there was a lot of litter and thought what can I do about this.

"With myself, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust helped at the time, and Friends of the Abberd Brook - we set up River Warriors back in 2018. We now have an adult and kids version.

"We take on conservation projects to make the area nicer for everyone to enjoy."

BBC Director General Tim Davie attended the event

Make a Difference was set up at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. It was a virtual notice board for those able to offer help and those needing support.

To date, more than nine million people have interacted with Make a Difference it across all 39 local BBC radio stations.

Mary Sanders, Editor at BBC Radio Wiltshire, said: "It has been an honour to celebrate the amazing people doing brilliant work in Wiltshire. All of our winners go above and beyond to improve the lives of others and we're delighted to be able to say thank you to them."