The day of our award lunch finally dawned yesterday. As many of our medical travel insurance customers will know, we have been running an award in association with Genetic Alliance UK. We created the award to find the UK’s most extraordinary carer, and yesterday, we held the celebration lunch.
The nominations we received were of the highest calibre. Our judge, Andrew Holt, Editor of Charity Times, had a very difficult job picking a winner and runner up. But pick them he did. We welcomed our winner Richard Sutton and our runner up Suzanne Addison and their families to The Little Ship Club on the Thames. It is in the heart of the City of London. We held the awards presentation and celebration lunch there.
Our judge Andrew Holt and Genetic Alliance UK’s Director, Alistair Kent, both commented on how welcome these awards were. They recognise the efforts of carers, who people can very easily forget. Carers generally just quietly get on with caring. They do what they do for love, not recognition. This is the very reason we wanted to launch these awards. We feel very strongly that we should recognise and celebrate the work carers do all day, every day.
Our winner Richard had had a very busy week. Last weekend, he staged the Disability Rocks festival, which is now in its second year. Richard set up and runs Disability Rocks, whilst also being his son Max’s full time carer. Richard set up Disability Rocks to help people living with a disability have a positive experience of music and the arts.
Our runner up Suzanne cares for her husband Keith and their daughter. Her daughter has an undiagnosed condition, SWAN (Syndromes Without A Name). Coupled with being a fulltime carer, she also spends her time fundraising for charity. She also raises awareness of Swan UK. This charity supports people who have children with undiagnosed conditions.
This award was initially instigated through my own experience of being cared for when I was diagnoses with cancer. However, I have been completely overwhelmed by the nominations we received for this award. They included people caring fulltime for their loved ones. They were also reaching out to help others through their experiences. Truly humbling.
