Revealed! Your Everyday Hero is the Ice Bucket Campaigner Who Made a £7m Splash For Charity
The International courier ParcelHero asked for the public to vote for their everyday heroes and heroines from all walks of life. And the overall winner is Paula McGuire – the woman behind the success of the ice bucket challenge.
At the beginning of November the public were asked to vote for their unsung heroes and heroines. The international parcel broker ParcelHero asked the UK public to nominate their Community Heroes, Volunteer Heroes, Sports Heroes and Business Heroes. There was an overwhelming response with people from all across the UK being nominated, and the public voting in their hundreds for the category winners. Picking an overall winner was a tough job, but finally a panel of expert judges chose Paula McGuire, the inspiration behind the ice bucket challenge here in the UK.
Says ParcelHero’s Head of Public Relations, David Jinks: ‘We were overwhelmed with the quality of the unsung heroes and heroines nominated. There were some truly moving stories of hard work, dedication and generosity. But Paula Maguire, from West Yorkshire, is undoubtedly a worthy winner. When Paula’s uncle was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND), and died shortly afterwards, Paula was inspired to start raising funds and raising awareness of this devastating disease. Paula saw news coverage of the USA’s Ice Bucket Challenge and decided to adopt the idea to raise funds for the disease in Britain, with her husband Robert being the first UK ice bucket victim! Paula created a Just Giving page and – thanks to her amazing efforts to publicise the challenge - in one month, August 2014, £7 million was raised for the charity.’
Says Paula of her win: ‘I’m amazed that I was picked as the winner and I am so honoured and proud. I will be starting my training soon ready for all the events next year. I have no intention of stopping in any way.’ Paula reveals in a full interview she is even planning a wing walk in 2016!
Paula was not the only inspirational Everyday Hero to win an award. The winner of the Sports Hero award is John Dunne of Greater Manchester. He was nominated by his daughter Andrea, and her nomination sums up exactly why he was voted a winner. Says Andrea: ‘My dad has spent many years coaching athletes with disabilities; giving them a chance when no one else would. He has encouraged and developed them, and many of his athletes have gone on to win medals both locally and nationally: indeed a couple of his athletes have won Paralympic medals. He still goes down to the athletic club to share his expertise and encourage others - at 87 years old!’
The winner of the Volunteer Hero award is Ian Peckett of Scarborough. Ian has volunteered for the local Mountain Rescue team for seven years; often being called out during the night. He also works full time and has often been up through the night searching for missing people and then gone onto his day job. Ian also works as a first aid trainer, and gets a true buzz from training others to ensure they can help with saving lives.
Dean Keable of Eltham, London won the Business Hero award. Every year since 2011 Dean has organised an overseas charity cycle for the Freddie Farmer Foundation charity. Dean organises it with the help of his employers, SPM Print, and every penny raised goes straight to the charity. Last year a ride through Germany, Holland and Belgium raised over £26,000 for the Foundation, which supports disabled children in London.
Finally, the winner of the public vote for the People’s Hero Award is Thomas Glynn of Merseyside. For over 10 years, through his voluntary work with his local break dancing group, UC Crew, he has taught break dancing to hundreds of young people; creating dancing events to improve the community, and helping young people to achieve their goals, such as starting their first job. He has also introduced over 500 young people to volunteering during his employment at St Helens Volunteer Centre as a Volunteer Manager.
Concludes David: ‘This is a truly inspirational group of winners, coming from all ages and all walks of life. Everyone should read their full stories on our Everyday Heroes page. Our congratulations go to everyone who was nominated. We’re pleased to say that Paula will soon be jetting off to the destination of her choice as first prize; while our other winners will all receive luxury pampering experiences. They certainly deserve to be treated like a hero at least this once, after all their hard work for their communities.’ Find out more about the winners at: https://www.parcelhero.com/blog/competitions/announcing-the-parcelhero-everyday-peoples-hero
For more information please contact David Jinks, Head of PR, on david@parcelhero.com or by phone on 0208 7584962 (07772 055748 out of office hours)
Leading international online courier ParcelHero® strategically partners with the world's leading logistics companies, including DHL, UPS and DPD, to provide a flexible, cost-effective range of parcel delivery services to over 220 countries worldwide. Huge bulk purchasing power allows ParcelHero® to offer highly competitive pricing with no compromise in service quality.
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