Making us proud in the community

More than 200 people attended the special awards night at the Guernsey Press offices, that were transformed into a gala venue.

Thirteen awards recognised ordinary people doing the extraordinary in the community.

Mr Davies was presented with the last award of the night.

He suffered a stroke three years ago that has changed his life. Yet through support he has been able to set up his own record shop, Vinyl Vaughan’s.

He is on course this year to raise £12,000 for charity.

He dedicated the award to his wife, Gina, who nominated him, and used his award speech to highlight the importance of mental health and said when people said they are OK, you should always ask again.

‘Just bounce back and say, honestly?, as that could open up a can of worms,’ he said.

‘We are proud of our island and we want to be proud of being a caring, sharing island.’

Dawn Ellis won the Parent of the Year award after working tirelessly to improve mental health services, after her daughter Lauren died last year.

‘We continue doing what Lauren wanted and that was helping the island and making sure no one else went through what she went through,’ she said.

Teacher of the Year, Claire Burchell, from Notre Dame School, said she and the other nominees in her category all did the best they could to turn young children into people.

‘We are just lucky that people trust us with the precious gift of their children,’ she said.

The RNLI took home their second Pride of Guernsey Emergency Hero award, after winning in 2016 and again this weekend.

Lifeboat second coxswain Jason Norman said they were ‘chuffed to bits’ to win again.