Local Hero Awards: Meet the finalists

The Your Harrogate Local Hero Awards are back as we shine a light on selfless, dedicated and inspirational people in the Harrogate district.

The glitzy awards ceremony will take place at Rudding Park this evening (Friday) thanks to our headline sponsors, O’Connor Chiropractic and Vida Healthcare.

After a difficult judging process, we've whittled down the nominations to three people/groups/workplaces across ten categories.

And ahead of the event, we're taking a closer look at some of our amazing local hero finalists...

Child of Courage

Emily Caffrey

Emily was born prematurely at 28 weeks, and by 4 years old she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. 

But Emily loves to be active! In 2020 she walked 10 miles in her walking frame before finishing on her 7th birthday, raising £15,000 for NHS charities together.

Fast forward to 2023, Emily embarked on a new sporting challenge - the Yorkshire Ability Triathlon.

Again she chose to raise money, this time for the RAF benevolent fund after they helped adapt her home to enable her to live as independently as possible.

Emily completed a 100m swim, 2000m bike ride on her adapted trike and an 800m run using her walking frame, raising £5000!

Speaking about Emily, Mum Hannah said:

“She’s incredible. She is incredible at what she does and she has so much fun doing it, she laughs, she smiles.

"She doesn’t see herself as any different to any other child, she likes to help people.

"If you want a cheerleader then you take Emily, she will cheer anybody on no matter how good or bad they are." 

Her dad Jon added:

“She never lets anything hold her back, she just wants to be as normal of a child she can.”

Charity Fundraiser

Ian Addair

Ian challenged himself to 6 big events, 6 little events and 6,000 miles in total, either swimming, cycling or running, to raise money for St Michaels Hospice.

Coming from a rugby background and having a main interest in lifting very heavy things, the thought of endurance sports was never one that he favoured.

Ian battled rain, sun, hail and snow when taking on his challenge. And to add to the difficulty, Ian's dad sadly passed away just before he began.

Ian said,

“I don’t want recognition. I do it for people like myself who never thought they would need the charity.

“I never realised the extent of the work that [St Michael's] do and I wanted to do something for them and that’s all there is to it, its not about me, its about them."

Ian completed the Ironman Bolton in July 2023.

Other events included ‘The Lap’ in September 2023 and ‘The Roc Scotland’ in October 2023.

He added:

“Everybody I speak to I tell them whatever they can do, try.

"You don’t have to do as much as I did but I wanted to push myself but anything is worth a donation for these charities.”

Emergency Services award:

PC Lizzie Parry

Elizabeth Parry has been part of North Yorkshire Police for nearly three years and has already made a significant impact on the community.

She was recently nominated for the North Yorkshire Police National Response Officer of the Year and Student Officer of the Year.

Specifically noted were the quality of her investigations and the care and respect she gives to victims of crime.

Here’s what North Yorkshire Police said about Lizzie:

“Her work is produced to an exceptional standard, she takes ownership to ensure things get done, regularly working beyond her allocated shift. 

“She ensures that her victims of crime are updated regularly realising how important this contact is.

“Her crime reports are completed to an exceptional standard and provide an excellent level of detail. She really encapsulates the passion of policing to make things better for people. 

“Her work ethic is second to none and she displays absolute integrity in everything she does".

We asked Lizzie, 'What has been the highlight of your career in the police so far?'

She said:

"Working as part of a team has been something I've really enjoyed, being around like-minded people that just want to make a difference around the local community"

Employer of the year

Piglet in Bed 

Piglet In Bed is a British bedding and lifestyle brand specialising in linen and cotton blend duvets.

The business started in owner Jess’s mums shed in 2017 and were online for the first few years.

But Piglet in bed decided to make Harrogate its first boutique store.

Employees Stacey Geeney and Terina Daly spoke to Your Harrogate about the great things about working at Piglet In Bed.

They said:

“We get the opportunity to have our ideas taken on board and we are always evolving.

“The culture is brilliant, our founder Jess she is really unbelievably inspirational, super approachable and down to earth.

“The whole company ethos that Jess has created is really nice and it just makes coming to work enjoyable, we don’t have that Monday morning dread."

Stacey added:

“Jess actively seeks us out to ask for our opinion which you wouldn’t usually get in retail, she’s great.”

Piglet In Bed are located on James Street in Harrogate and you can find their website here.

Lifetime Achievement

Stuart Martin 

Stuart has done so much work locally over the years, helping to change lives and the community for the better.

He has been a Ripon Councillor, Harrogate Borough Councillor and County Councillor over the course of 23 years.

He was Mayor of Ripon for 2 years, and his key achievements include hosting the late Queen and Prince Philip during their visit to Ripon and the Night Watchmen from all over Europe.

Stuart has been Chairman of North Yorkshire County Council and Chairman of Ripon Community House, a community facility for the benefit of Ripon and the surrounding area.

In more recent years - and currently - Stuart has been heavily involved in the Ripon Poppy Project.

He arranged the incredible knitted tank to go on tour to Llandudno in North Wales, where it took part in The Longest Yarn D-Day Tribute.

He is also the Founder of TASC Madagascar, a charity he founded to help impoverished communities after he first visited the country nearly 20 years ago.

Stuart often visits the children to see how they are getting on at school and to see what other improvements he can make.

We asked Stuart, 'What would you say has been your biggest achievement?'

He said:

"Locally it would be helping to bring the community together through the Poppy Project.

"On a global scale I would say the work I did in Madagascar, building schools, we recently heard that one of the children who would have been a farmer, has gone through university and got his masters degree and now is aiming to do his PHD.

"Its a great honour to be able to help him achieve that."

Parent of the year

Ken Fox 

Ken Fox is 81-years-old and is originally from Pontefract before he moved to South Africa. It was here he had his children and moved them back to Yorkshire.

In recent years, despite his own health problems, Ken has become his wife’s main carer as she suffers with dementia and needs help with day to day things.

Ken has had recent major surgery and struggled with his mental health - but still remains a great dad, grandad and husband to his family.

His daughters praised his dedication to looking after their mum despite his own health struggles.

Ken met his wife when he would see her in her window and eventually got the courage to ask her on a date.

Although she stood him up, she agreed to go on another date and they have now been married for 59 years!

He said: 

“I do my best to look after her and after 59 years you have got to do something for your wife.”

We asked Ken, 'how do you like to spend time with your wife?'

He said:

“I still drive and try to get my wife out into the countryside to go to a 5 acre field to watch the wildflowers, all colourful flowers.

"They are beautiful and I take her there to show her beautiful things like her.”

Sporting Achievement of the Year

Freedom Performing Arts

Freedom Performing Arts in Knaresborough are officially one of the best in the world, having finished in sixth place in the Dance World Cup!

They competed alongside more than 65 other countries and over 5,000 dancers took part.

Freedom Performing Arts was founded in 2010 and started with Street Dance lessons held at Aspin Primary School one night a week. It has now grown into one of the biggest schools in the area. 

Over 300 students attend a range of more than 50 classes every week with commercial and street dance still being at the forefront of what they do.

Speaking about the performance that led to their success, coach Sophie said:

“it is crazy what it has become. We put it together for a bit of fun for the summer school".

Speaking about the students, Owner Amy Meikle said:

“They work tirelessly. They are here pretty much every night of the week and it is not just a dance class for them, they care deeply about what they are doing so for someone to recognise that and nominate us is amazing."

Gracie, one of the dancers, spoke about their time in Prague for the competition.

She said:

“Everyone was so proud, my dad who never cries was in tears. It was a surreal moment.”

Teacher of the Year

Ashling Folan

Ashling has only been a qualified teacher for 2 years at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School and has already made a great impact on students.

Her inspiration to become a teacher started when she went to Kenya to help the locals build houses and schools and help the children learn. 

She said:

"Spending time with those children really made me realise how important education is.”

Last year, one of Ashling students dad passed away due to kidney related issues. The student’s dad would help the child with all her schoolwork.

Ashling decided to take 20 minutes after school each week to help the student with their homework. She also took a bereavement course so she could support the child as best as she could. 

Talking about what she did for the student, Ashling said:

“Its clear that my support has made more of an impact then I realised and making sure things were in place to support that child, I didn’t think was the biggest deal.

“I do believe making sure fun is in learning to keep them engaged and to know that you can make mistakes in front of children.”

Volunteer of the Year

Anne Morley

Anne was an ESOL teacher at Harrogate College. She has since taken the skills and knowledge from that job and now actively uses them in her community.

She is a volunteer for Harrogate and Knaresborough District of Sanctuary, befriending refugees who come to our town from places such as Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

She offers befriending and advocacy for families who often arrive following traumatic life events.

In addition, Anne set up Knaresborough Carers - a Facebook community with over 600 members.

This group provides a vehicle for sourcing practical support for refugees and those who are experiencing financial hardship, items gifted by members range from small kitchen items to sofas and other large goods.

But Anne hasn't stopped there!

As a widow herself, she recently set up the Knaresborough Widowed Community which has over 100 members who meet regularly for social activities and provide support to each other as they transition to a life alone.

As a passionate environmentalist, Anne also runs Knaresborough Sparks (which has over 900 members!) to share tips on improving our environment. 

We spoke to Anne about her volunteering achievements and we asked, 'In all of your volunteering, what has been the moment you realised how much of an impact you have had on other people?'

She said:

"Probably when the boys who were asylum seeking called me mum.

"They had left Sudan at the ages of 15,16 and 17 and had lost contact with their own families."

Anne added:

"If you see somebody struggling its just about kindness even if it a small thing."

Bravery Award

Duncan Goodwin

You may recognise Duncan from his appearance on the hit Channel 4 show 'The Piano' where he made it to the final after the nation fell in love with his song for his wife Fran.

Duncan has been playing the piano since he was 5-years-old and, although he didn’t find it enjoyable at first, started by making his own variations of notes in songs and found a love for it.

Duncan and Fran met at work, after Fran had split from her husband, she found a friend in Duncan and fell 'madly in love' - and they've been together ever since.

Duncan regularly volunteers to play for the dementia patients at Dementia Forward and we had the pleasure of hearing him play for an audience, where he played hits such as 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' - and didn't need to read a single piece of music despite his Alzheimers diagnosis. 

We asked Fran, Duncan’s wife, 'what makes Duncan special?'

She said:

“He is so completely genuine in everything he does.

"He is incredibly caring and he loves performing.

"It’s a funny word nice, it seems tame but he is the nicest person I have ever met. I think he’s just the whole package.”

We asked Duncan how his time was on channel 4’s ‘The Piano’

He said:

“I was thrilled by it since it’s a fabulous program. The production crew were wonderful and very caring.”

Debbie from Dementia Forward, who encouraged Duncan to go on the Channel 4 show, said:

“We always encourage people to volunteer and Duncan asked one day if he could play for charity and I said of course we just have to hear you play and then he sat down at the piano and I was completely blown away.

“He’s so supportive and comes every month and plays for the group.”

Follow the Your Harrogate Local Hero Awards on DAB, online and on your smart speaker from 6pm. 

You can also see the photos of our winners on our social media channels.