Runnymede and Spelthorne Volunteer Award Winners 2024

Winner of the Unsung Hero Award

In deciding the winner for this category, the judges thought it important to recognise the role that sport plays in our communities both in building confidence for individuals but also in bringing people together around a shared passion. Ross Getty is being recognised for his unwavering dedication to grassroots coaching. His impact goes beyond victories in the ring; it extends to shaping the lives of young individuals through sport. Like many grassroots coaches, he sacrifices time with loved ones, meticulously plans sessions, and constantly seeks improvement. Despite doubts and setbacks, he persists, knowing that the highs of coaching far outweigh the lows.

Grassroots coaching demands more than just teaching a sport; it requires instilling life skills and fostering personal growth. Our winner and coaches like him provide a safe environment for children to learn, grow, and develop crucial attributes like friendship, discipline, self-challenge, and resilience. Their commitment to guiding young athletes goes unnoticed by many, but the impact they have is immeasurable: it is more than just a training space; it is a supportive community that nurtures both physical and mental well-being. And our winner exemplifies the spirit of grassroots coaching, embodying the resilience, determination, and unwavering belief in the potential of every young athlete.

Special Mention for the Unsung Hero Award

The judging panel felt that they wanted to recognise an additional person in this category and so decided to give a Special Mention to Derek Beake who has supported many charities over the years and always goes the extra mile.

This person uses his own motorboat that has been specially adapted to take people with disabilities of all ages out on the Thames. With Impossible Dream he provides uplifting and delightful memories for everyone he is able to help.

Winner of the Inspirational Volunteer Award

Michelle Cockram has volunteered and helped manage the club she is part of consistently in the last year. She is always upbeat and positive, showing great empathy with the club members that live with the effects of numerous conditions. She manages the volunteers, matching abilities, and personalities to the benefit of the members. It is due to her diligence that the members can get the most out of their time at the club. Due to her efforts the swimming sessions the club provides are effective and efficient enabling club members to engage in rehabilitative hydrotherapy, exercise or simply splashing around at their own pace. In a number of circumstances some members would not be able to leave their home without the club and Michelle’s smiling, encouraging, and friendly demeanour.

Michelle is described as truly an inspiration as her commitment has recently been rewarded with a National Lottery grant enabling the purchase of equipment that assists in the changing of members and the manoeuvring of members into and out of the pools. The club simply does not know where she gets her energy from!

Winner of the Inspirational Volunteer Award

Jean Saunders is cited as the true definition of the word “inspirational”. She has had several different occupations in her life, including being a carer, an activities coordinator and in the last 10 years the founder and chairwoman of Spelthorne Dementia Support aka Purple Angels. She did a parachute jump to raise funds to start the charity, an outstanding achievement that allowed the charity to be born and gradually grow through the years.

She is the main reason that volunteers are all inspired to help, to care and support people living with Dementia and their families. She goes the extra mile to support members and works relentlessly every day to ensure that the charity is running well. Her passion and dedication inspire all to make a difference too. Volunteers report their pride in working alongside her.

Jean has an extensive knowledge of Dementia and how to make sure people suffering from this terrible disease can still have a good quality of life. Her best attribute is described as having empathy, knowing how to talk to people, how to make them feel they matter and that they can still have a good life. Put simply, she makes a huge difference for people’s lives every day.

Winner of the New Volunteer Award

Jon came to the charity (and its shed) shortly after it was granted an 18-month extension on its location. He took it upon himself to rebuild and renew 80% of the inside of the shed, making a functioning kitchen, new walls and major redecoration. He works nights driving and any spare time he has is dedicated to making the space safe and comfortable for others in the community. He is described as a quiet and selfless man who gives to others freely and enjoys making spaces good. In giving this award, the judges recognised not only the effort that Jon has put into this organisation but also the positive impact of the group on men’s mental health in the community: something that is very commonly overlooked.

Special Mention for the Long Service Award

In the 10+ years category the judges were unanimous that a Special Mention should be given to Peter Maskell who has given over 18 years of voluntary support to his community in both Runnymede and Spelthorne.

He is recognised as being an incredibly valued member of the communications team at both Ashford and St. Peter’s hospitals spending a day a week at each site. He was one of the first volunteers to return to the hospitals post Covid and made sure that patients, visitors and staff had the most up to date infection prevention and control information. In his 18 years, he has also volunteered in other areas of the Trust and has taken on roles, as a volunteer, which were previously paid. He is credited for his generous and kind spirit but also his commitment to Ashford and St Peter’s. As he approaches his 80th birthday, he continues to volunteer and has even taken on some additional watering duties on a new herb garden. The whole team at ASPH feels very lucky to have him and wished for him to receive an award as a token of their appreciation of his commitment and dedication to ASPH over the years.

Winners of the Long-Service Award (10+ Years)

This year we took a new approach to the Long Service Awards. Instead of selecting one winner for this category, we recognised and presented an award to all nominees for their outstanding commitment. We felt it important that they all receive the recognition they so richly deserve.

Below are the winners for the Long Service Award (10+ Years) category:

• Peter Maskell – Ashford & St, Peter’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• Irving Lord – Runnymede National Trust
• Lisa Greaves, Jean Saunders and Sue Mansell – Spelthorne Dementia Support
• Madeline Jackson – St John’s Church, Egham
• Andrea Cheeseman – White Lodge
• Jennifer Gregory – St John’s, Egham Hope Hub
• Margaret Clark – St Saviour’s Sunbury, Community Hub

Winners of the Long Service Award (20+ Years)

This year we took a new approach to the Long Service Awards. Instead of selecting one winner for this category, we recognised and presented an award to all nominees for their outstanding commitment. We felt it important that they all receive the recognition they so richly deserve.

Below are the winners for the Long Service Award (20+ Years) category:

• Robin Sider – has volunteered with the Greeno Centre in Shepperton, Shepperton Rotary and a number of other groups. He has volunteered all his life and is now Alderman of the borough. He is described in his nomination as ‘the hero of Spelthorne’ and continues to surprise everyone with the energy and passion that he brings to everything he does.
• Chris Gay – 2024 will mark his 50^th year as secretary of Chertsey Football Club. He has seen the club through very troubling times when 30 men and a dog used to watch the game to currently where the club regularly has crowds of over 600! And this year he also gets to celebrate the club being promoted. Chris works tirelessly coordinating communications with the league and supporters, writing weekly match reports and compiling the weekly match programme. He has been the constant that has kept the club going giving his time and energies for free without a second thought.
• Christine Leach – supporting over 100 residents Chertsey and Addlestone Good Neighbours is a self-funding, community-based voluntary organisation relying on the donations of its clients to reimburse volunteer drivers (45) for any expenses they incur. Christine joined the group in 2002 as ‘duty officer’. She was appointed Chair in addition, one year later in 2003 when the founder stepped down. She is the epitome of strong leadership and problem that enabled her to successfully negate the impact of Covid with a 4-fold increase in transport and befriending requests. To-date over 6,000 journeys have been completed.

Winner of the Volunteer Team Award

Englefield Green Child Contact Centre has been running since 2010 at The Englefield Green Village Centre and volunteers give up their weekends to provide a supervised, fun, neutral and safe place for children to visit their family members that they wouldn’t normally be able to spend time with in an unsupervised home environment. Families are referred to the group, and children come from many backgrounds including those containing domestic violence, drug alcohol abuse and mental health issues. Volunteers process the applications and interview the families to ensure they feel comfortable and safe. The team of 15 volunteers work on a rota basis at weekends to ensure all sessions are run safely and that the children are content and happy. Games and activities are set up in advance by the volunteers and other duties include welcoming the children at handover, helping parents to interact and play and ensuring behaviour and conversations are appropriate at all times.

The group battled through the Covid period and managed to stay open and offer a service when many other local Child Contact Centres closed down and unfortunately have since closed down completely. The group is now the only Contact Centre running in the area and the service remains free of charge to its users to ensure no families are excluded, whatever their financial circumstances. The volunteers remain dedicated to the contact centre and realise the importance of this service to their local community.

Winner of the Engagement in the Community Award

In the last few years many businesses have gone above and beyond when it comes to the idea of corporate social responsibility, and this year’s nominees have all demonstrated what can be achieved when companies really care about the communities they operate within.

Enterprise epitomises this spirit and has long supported organisations on their doorstep and further afield while keeping charitable initiatives as one of their core values. Employees engage in regular volunteering opportunities throughout the year as well as contributing to seasonal gifting schemes. Beyond their regular gifting, they often offer donations from their Foundation and distribute items whether it be mugs or new books for a literacy scheme. I should mention that Enterprise supports many charities each year and that they freely host meetings and community gatherings saving the sector several £1000 p.a.  Some staff members have also offered their time in a committed fashion by becoming trustees on local charitable boards.

Financial donations and support in terms of manpower have made huge differences to so many local groups and we are very fortunate to have such an active corporate in our area.

Winner of the Fundraiser of the Year Award

In the last year Kevin has personally raised £15,000 often with his efforts contributing to larger fundraising by the organisation. In the spring of 2023, he undertook the 4x4x48 challenge where he ran 4 miles, every 4 hours for 48 hours where he had the incredible resilience to battle sleep deprivation and exhaustion.

He was key in his support for the disabled Superheroes at the Superhero Triathlon where he arranged sponsorship for the superheroes to hit their fundraising targets, provided Sidekick support at the event with his Gartner colleagues and lent his own kit for everyone to use at the Triathlon.  The Gartner team raised £1,600 for White Lodge, and it was key to enabling the Superheroes to take part and raise an amazing £24,000 on the day.

Kevin also raised £500 by taking part in the 2024 Weybridge Regatta and supports many more campaigns throughout the year including the White Lodge Big Give Christmas Appeal.

He is described as a larger-than-life inspiration, always giving 100%, and where no challenge is too big.

Special Mention for the Fundraiser of the Year Award

George is an example of how an act of kindness during a moment of serendipity can generate tremendous results. An elderly tourist from Australia had missed his stop on the bus while visiting the Airforces Memorial in Egham and had called into the tea room for a rest. On hearing his plight George took it upon himself to drive the gentleman up to the memorial, to locate the man’s relative, and to return him to Egham station in time for his train back to London. George then also took it upon himself to keep in contact with the man sharing photos from the day and additional information that he had managed to find on the uncle.

Due to his kindness the tourist made a £500 donation to Runnymede. While this may not sound a huge amount this is one-quarter of what the group usually manages to fundraise in a single year – proof that generosity of spirit can go a long way.

Winner of the Community Champion Award

Some of you will have noticed that this award category was not included in our nomination list. In judging the awards, the panel felt very strongly that there was one nominee who could not go unrecognised and so decided to create a new category to celebrate his achievements. The Community Champion Award recognises an organisation or individual that puts community at the heart of everything they do.

Despite being in his seventies and one of the longest-serving members of the team, George MacDonald is described as doing the jobs nobody else wants to do. As well as attending the foodbank every time it is open and doing whatever task needs doing, he collects all the donations from nearby supermarkets. This is no small task, yet he does it at least five days a week and sometimes six or seven as he will cover for others.

Our winner never seeks to do the “front of house” tasks but diligently and enthusiastically applies himself to everything that needs doing behind the scenes.

He is clearly such an inspiration that he has enlisted his long-suffering wife as co-driver in all his collections despite having no connection with the community ministry.

Put simply – and according to his nomination – he is an example to us all.