Fifteen regional winners in contention for Unsung Hero award

BBC Sports Personality Unsung Hero Award 2024 graphic

Fifteen regional winners are in contention to be crowned the 2024 BBC Sports Personality Unsung Hero of the Year.

The honour celebrates the best volunteers in sport, whose work is making a real difference in communities across the UK every day.

The overall winner will be announced at the Sports Personality of the Year show, which takes place on Tuesday, 17 December from 19:00 GMT live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

Des Smith - the chair of the Sheffield Caribbean Sports Club - won the award last year.

The 2024 regional winners are Moon Mughis (Scotland), Liam Mackay (Wales), Rachel Reid (Northern Ireland), Samra Said (London), Jean Paton (South), Ian Bennett (South West), Adam Kenyon (South East), George Sullivan (East), Stewart Nubley (East Midlands), Asha Rage (West Midlands), Bob Purcell (West), Paul McIntyre (North West), Keith Grainge (Yorkshire), Kristen Ingraham-Morgan (East Yorkshire & Lincolnshire), and Stephen Newton (North East & Cumbria).

Scotland - Moon Mughis

Scotland Unsung Hero 2024 - Moon Mughis

Moon Mughis is a coach at East Kilbride Cricket Club who - wanting to make the club more inclusive - made it her mission to create a women's and girls' section after her daughter was the only female player at the club in 2018.

Within a year, the club had enough players to create a soft-ball team and entered a Cricket Scotland indoor tournament for women, which they went on to win.

Moon was the first Muslim and Asian woman in Scotland to qualify as an ECB Level 2 cricket coach, and her club now has teams playing in the hard-ball Cricket Scotland Women's Premier League.

Wales - Liam Mackay

Wales Unsung Hero 2024 - Liam Mackay

Liam Mackay founded Caerau Ely mini and junior rugby club in Cardiff in 2018. He works with the local foodbank, who come to the club on Sunday mornings to supply some of the children with breakfast if they have missed it at home.

Numbers attending the club have grown to more than 200, and Liam offers the chance for them to play sport without being out of pocket, while also offering a boot bank so everyone has the kit they need to take part.

Northern Ireland - Rachel Reid

Northern Ireland Unsung Hero 2024 - Rachel Reid

Rachel Reid is the head coach of Lagan Dragons - Northern Ireland's first dragon boat club for people affected directly or indirectly by breast cancer.

As well as spending countless hours arranging squad systems, training coaches, paddlers and helms, and handling equipment at her own expense, Rachel has created a safe, supportive and joyful space where nearly 100 members have found a sense of belonging, strength and purpose.

London - Samra Said

London Unsung Hero 2024 – Samra Said

Samra Said is the chair of Cycle Sisters - an award-winning charity that inspires and enables Muslim women to cycle. It now operates across London with a network of more than 1,500 women and 100 volunteer ride leaders.

Samra set up a new Cycle Sisters group in Hounslow and has given many hours of volunteer time to the group – co-ordinating other volunteers, risk-assessing routes and managing other volunteers.

She has also ensured Cycle Sisters thrives, with more than 300 members and regular rides twice a week, and continues to reflect the needs of the women it serves.

South - Jean Paton

South Unsung Hero 2024 – Jean Paton

At 90, Jean Paton is one of the most dedicated volunteers of Salterns Sailing Club in Lymington, Hampshire. She has been an integral part of the club - which is run by children with the support of adult volunteers - for nearly 40 years.

Jean is a Royal Yachting Association (RYA) dinghy instructor and has been at all of the club's 'Moppy Camps' - RYA-accredited sail training weekends - since they began 20 years ago. During this time, she has taken on many roles, which require not only sailing expertise, but also leadership and the ability to inspire confidence in young sailors.

South West - Ian Bennett

South West Unsung Hero 2024 - Ian Bennett

Ian Bennett is a surf instructor in Croyde Bay, North Devon, and is a pioneer of adaptive surfing for children and adults.

Ian organises an army of volunteers as part of the Wave Project and has worked with surfboard makers to build an adaptive board so surfers can sit up while he or another volunteer steers the board from the tail. He also organised funding and worked closely with the local council to get the UK's first beachside changing room built for wheelchair users last year.

South East - Adam Kenyon

South East Unsung Hero 2024 - Adam Kenyon

Adam Kenyon is a teacher at Sittingbourne Community College and is head coach of Sittingbourne Community College Archers (SCCA), running the club on the core principle of inclusivity, welcoming and coaching anyone who wishes to shoot regardless of any physical or learning difficulty or mental health challenge.

He has sought sponsorship from companies to ensure all members have the equipment they need, while also sourcing and building a fixed indoor range wall for the school. He regularly takes members to junior national championships and organises regular activities to include parents, the wider school community and engagement with primary feeder schools.

East - George Sullivan

East Unsung Hero 2024 - George Sullivan

George Sullivan, who is severely sight impaired, is a volunteer in the Royal National Institute of Blind People Community Connection Team for East England, a See Sport Differently Champion and chair of a new goalball team at Chelmsford Goalball Club.

He is extensively involved in playing and promoting visually impaired sport, has campaigned to make mainstream sport accessible, and actively supports other blind and partially sighted people to participate in sports.

Recently, he ran a successful campaign for audio description commentary at all Arsenal Women's matches and is in the process of setting up a showdown - a sport, similar to table tennis and ice hockey, for visually impaired people - club in Cambridge.

East Midlands - Stewart Nubley

East Midlands Unsung Hero 2024 - Stewart Nubley

Stewart Nubley is the co-founder of Ashfield Spartans Boxing Academy - a community club that has helped to transform the lives of young people through boxing, mentoring and community outreach. The club runs programmes that provide opportunities for individuals with disabilities and mental health challenges to engage in physical activity, build confidence, and feel part of a supportive community.

Despite facing personal struggles, including a severe cardiac arrest, Stewart made it his mission to give even more to his community and has been particularly impactful for those at risk of engaging in criminal behaviour.

West Midlands - Asha Rage

West Midlands Unsung Hero 2024 - Asha Rage

Asha Rage is a football coach who is using the sport to keep young people away from gang violence and build bridges within the community. In 2016, she set up a football team in Small Heath called Dream Chasers FC, with more than 160 youngsters now training weekly and Asha encouraging more Muslim girls to take part.

A youth club is open every day and hosts 'Coffee with a Coppa' sessions - helping the community form bonds with local police officers, and discuss any potential issues in a friendly setting. There are also Street Watch walks, litter picks, English lessons for migrant parents, dance lessons for women, and healing paint workshops to help with mental health and wellbeing.

West - Bob Purcell

West Unsung Hero 2024 - Bob Purcell

Bob Purcell is a volunteer athletics coach at Gloucester Athletics Club who specialises in disability athletics, including wheelchair racing and frame running, and spends his weekends in all weathers at tracks.

When the club's track fell into disrepair and had no floodlights, Bob coached athletes in the winter by the light of car headlights parked on the field. He spearheaded the establishment of a charity named Gloucester Athletics Track Management, which took control of the maintenance of the track from the local council. He did an enormous amount of work liaising with the council, MPs, and various local companies to secure funds necessary to repair and ensure the long-term future of the track.

North West - Paul McIntyre

North West Unsung Hero 2024 – Paul McIntyre

Paul McIntyre founded Nantwich Triathlon Club in 2001, and lives and breathes community participation in grassroots sport - striving to facilitate and accommodate as far and wide as possible.

Paul set up The Dabbers Dash - a community run with a dual purpose. Initially intended to demonstrate to the local council that a perimeter path required completing around a local park to enable a safe place for exercise, local charities are now invited to start and end the Dash, to enable interaction with the community and signpost to local services that don't have marketing budgets.

Yorkshire - Keith Grainge

Yorkshire Unsung Hero 2024 - Keith Grange

Keith Grainge is an 83-year-old widow from North Yorkshire, who stumbled across pickleball as a way to keep fit after the Covid lockdowns and quickly realised he had to share the benefits of the sport.

During 2023 he introduced pickleball across York and has more than 300 picklers in over 20 sessions in six different venues. Keith started the club with his own money and spends many hours every week running sessions.

East Yorkshire & Lincolnshire - Kristen Ingraham-Morgan

East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Unsung Hero 2024 – Kristen Ingraham-Morgan

A full-time CrossFit trainer, Kristen Ingraham-Morgan is the founder of Strong Girls Squad (SGS) - a voluntary sports and craft club that teaches strength training to girls from 11-18 through holiday camps and in-school workshops.

Kristen's mission is to help girls feel strong - mentally and physically - by teaching them about strength training in a female-led environment. At the camps, they provide hot nutritious lunches, enrichment activities and the opportunity for the girls to meet as many interesting and inspiring women as possible.

SGS also has a 'take one thing they want and one thing they need' scheme which makes period products, sports clothing, lifting shoes, bras and hygiene products available to the girls.

North East & Cumbria - Stephen Newton

North East & Cumbria Unsung Hero 2024 - Stephen Newton

Stephen Newton is the driving force behind disability-inclusive cycling at Stockton Wheelers Cycling Club. Over the past three years, he has created a welcoming, accessible environment for disabled riders, and in the past 12 months, his efforts have transformed the lives of many through the Limitless programme - British Cycling's initiative aimed at removing barriers for disabled people in sport.

Inclusive cycling sessions at Stockton Wheelers have grown to include 20-25 riders, with many participants returning time and time again.