Burnley and Pendle care centres recognised at prestigious Age UK Lancashire awards ceremony

Recognised for their wonderful work with people living with dementia and their carers, staff at Walton Lane Day Centre in Nelson were the big winners at the event, which was held on Tuesday 18th of December in Chorley.

Bringing together staff, volunteers and trustees, the Age UK Lancashire awards ceremony also featured live musical entertainment and a chance for new Chief Executive Teri Stephenson to review the year and talk about the future plans and opportunities she hopes to oversee.

“This is the 5th event we have done to celebrate our organisations achievements and in what has been quite a challenging year in a number of ways, it has been great to be able to finish on a real high," said David Ward from Age UK Lancashire. "We were pleased that so many of our team from around the county were able to attend.

"The real highlight of the day was celebrating the staff and volunteer nominees and winners," David added. "It was great to have the staff awards sponsored by Vincent’s Solicitors and Napthen’s Solicitors sponsoring our volunteer awards. We really appreciate their support, without which we wouldn’t be able to host these events."

Special individual awards were also given to Walton Lane's centre manager Lesley Bowden for her continued excellent work, and support worker Beverly Harrison, who received the highest honour by winning the award for outstanding service to older people for her hard work and dedication to the clients. Helen Little from the Knight Hill House Resource Centre in Padiham was also recognised for ‘Going the Extra Mile’.

Claire Hamilton from Vincent’s solicitors said: “It was a real tear-jerker watching the films and hearing stories about the people they support. We were delighted to be able to sponsor the staff awards and felt privileged to be involved."

With Lancashire having one of the highest rates on loneliness in the country with more than 35,000 people over 65 said to be chronically lonely, Age UK Lancashire plays an important role through campaigning for change to social care and providing advice and support for people in a variety of areas, including welfare benefit checks and information on how to stay healthy and warm in the winter months. Age UK Lancashire works to support people to stay active and socialise by providing activity groups and opportunities for people to remain independent.

For more information, head to www.ageuklancs.org.uk or by call 03003 031 234.