They support Sunderland children who need foster parents - and now they're backing our newest awards

And Nicky Hudson, Director North East at UK Fostering NE, explained why the organisation was right behind the Rising Star of the Year category in the first ever Wearside Women In Business Awards.

The independent fostering agency is one of a number of fantastic backers who have supported the inaugural search for female champions of industry.

Nicky told the Sunderland Echo: “We want to do our best by children. We offer excellent support to our foster carers. We give them regular visits and offer excellent training. One of our foster carers said we were like a family and that was really nice.

“The category we are sponsoring is for the under-16s and, because we work with children, we were really interested in that award and also because of the foster carers who do an excellent job.

“If one of them was to be recognised, that would be quite an accolade.”

Nicky described how there were a ‘high number of children’ who were looking for placements and added: “Ideally, we would like to give them a choice of placements but there is a shortage of carers.”

UK Fostering is one of a number of great sponsors of the awards.

We want to receive so many nominations that the task of the competition judges to choose a winner will be really tough.

So take a look at the categories and decide which one is most appropriate for you.

Perhaps you know a female who has launched a company and it has got off to a storming start. Then you should choose the ‘Start-up Business Woman of the Year category’

The Rising Star section is for those who are making people sit up and take notice of their rise up the entrepreneurial ladder.

And we want to hear about new starters who deserve to win the Apprentice of the Year category.

Then there’s the people who make a difference in their neighbourhood. They stand a chance of winning the Contribution To Community category.

We’ve got the Women In Education Award and the Mentor of the Year section for those who tirelessly give them time to help others.

If you’re the person who everyone looks up to, you could be our Inspirational Woman of the Year.

And if you’ve made a difference to the business world over a long time, you could be our first ever winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Do you know someone who deserves to be the Business Woman of the Year? That’s another of our categories.

Watch out for much more on all of the categories in the weeks to come.

For now though, we want your nominations.

You have until September 2 to send us your entries and the judges will meet to draw up a shortlist three days later.

Then it is on to the grand finale – a lunchtime awards ceremoney on Thursday, September 26.

All this has been made possible with the help of our sponsors and they are Sunderland BIC, Gentoo, Club Zest, WBC Arts Wellbeing and TCL At Home.

We thank them all and we will have more on each of them soon.

But for now, we need your nominations to make the event a big success. Email [email protected] and tell us the name, address, business of your nominated person and why you feel they deserve to win.

Get nominating and let’s honour Wearside’s women who really make the business world tick.