AN awards ceremony celebrating the unsung heroes of the South Cumbrian community was a glittering success.

The Mail teamed up with sister paper The Westmorland Gazette to deliver the first South Cumbria Community Heroes Awards 2019.

The event saw some of the county’s most inspiring people take centre stage in a bid to recognise and reward their dedicated efforts.

The judges had the near impossible task of selecting winners from what was an incredible field of nominees.

Award categories for the evening included; Carer of the Year, Best Community Project, Good Neighbour of the Year, Unsung Hero, Good Friend, Volunteer of the Year, Young Achiever of the Year, Sporting Hero, School Worker of the Year and Helping Hand.

The evening’s sponsors included GlaxoSmithKline in Ulverston, The Cumbria Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office and ACTion with communities in Cumbria.

Ian Shaw, from GSK, said: “You’re all heroes and you’re all winners.” He said GSK’s mission statement was ‘to do more, feel better and live longer,’ which he felt was very relevant for the event.

Group editor of Newsquest Cumbria Vanessa Sims delivered the evening’s welcome speech.

She said: “As newspapers that pride themselves at being at the heart of the community, there can be fewer greater ways to celebrate some of the most special people where we live than this.

“Quite simply, this is a special occasion; a chance to recognise and reward those who do so much to help and inspire so many of us and make our part of the world such an amazing place in which to live.”

Crime commissioner Peter McCall said: “Awards like these are a very simple way to say thank you to people who go out of their way to better the community by looking out for each other. As Police and Crime Commissioner we see the way that building communities helps to build up resilience to issues like crime.”