Revealed: The Best of Wearside Awards shortlist - find out who is still in the running for honours

Best of Wearside Awards judges.
(Front L-R) Gavin Houghton, from Gentoo, Victoria Manghan from Calsonic Kansei, Emily Downes from BGL Group.'(Back L-R) Ian Thompson from Calsonic Kansei and Gavin Foster, managing editor of the Sunderland Echo. — Best of Wearside Awards judges. (Front L-R) Gavin Houghton, from Gentoo, Victoria Manghan from Calsonic Kansei, Emily Downes from BGL Group.'(Back L-R) Ian Thompson from Calsonic Kansei and Gavin Foster, managing editor of the Sunderland Echo.

The shortlist for this year’s Best of Wearside Awards has now been revealed.

A panel of judges met last week to decide on a shortlist of champions who are still in the running for a Best of Wearside Award.

We are now all set for the grand finale of this year’s competition, which aims to reward those unsung heroes who do fantastic work in the community.

Over the last few months, we have received so many incredible entries from people in all walks of life across Wearside and now our aim is to honour some truly deserving heroes.

This year’s awards have been backed by some fantastic sponsors - headline sponsor BGL Group, partner sponsor Gentoo and category sponsors Stagecoach, Calsonic Kansei, Audi, and Northern.

We thank them all for their fantastic backing.

This has been a wonderful year for competition entries and the judging panel had no easy task when it met to draw up a shortlist.

There were outstanding stories of achievement in every category and that’s down to the standard of people we have in our communities.

But eventually, the judges did manage to select a shortlist for each category.

Now we are gearing up to the final part of the competition, which will be to unveil our Best of Wearside champions, and we will do that in a grand finale at the Stadium of Light on Thursday, March 28.

Make sure you follow our live coverage of the night on Facebook: www.facebook.com/sunderlandechoonline and via Twitter: @sunderlandecho

Then after what is sure to be a fantastic night, we will bring you photographs, news and interviews in a supplement to be published in the Echo the following week.

SHORTLIST

Local Hero Award sponsored by the Sunderland Echo

Ken Robinson

Paige Hunter

Gill Dando

Green Champion of the Year sponsored by Stagecoach North East

Durham Cathedral Forest School

Broadway Junior School

Seaham High School

Dame Dorothy Primary School

Fundraiser of the Year sponsored by BGL Group

Sergio and Emma Petrucci

Ken Robinson

Southwick Community Primary School

Deano Franciosy

Volunteer of the Year sponsored by Sunderland Echo

Sunderland RNLI Lifeboat Station

Street Care

Samaritans of Sunderland

Vicky Brown

Sporting Achievement of the Year Sunderland AFC

Thomas Ward

Joshua Waddell

Millie Hixon

Community Group sponsored by Calsonic Kansei

Amber’s Law

Youth Almighty Project

Pennywell Youth Project

Veterans in Crisis Sunderland

MelanomaMe

Community Champion Award sponsored by Gentoo

Kirsty McGurrell

Ryan Houston

Karen Wood

Karl Williamson

Student of the Year sponsored by Sunderland Echo

Daria Tyminska

Bridie Stoddart

Georgia Chisholm

Child of Achievement sponsored by Northern Quinn Lownie

Chanel Murrish

Finlay Anderson

Child of Courage sponsored by Wearside Audi

Miles McBurnie

Gray Crone

Corey Adey

Farid Elshahawy

Clayton James Strand

Luna Petrucci

Special Award sponsored by BGL Group