Bury’s sporting heroes honoured at annual awards

The borough’s top sporting talents and achievers have been honoured at the tenth annual Bury Sports Awards.

Men, women and children were all praised for their individual, team or community success at the ceremony, which was held at the Elizabethan Suite in Bury.

This year’s event was again supported by I Will If You Will (IWIYW), which is a national pilot running in Bury which aims to encourage more women and girls to get more active. There was a special IWIYW award for the female who has made a special effort to get active in 2014 through the programme. I Will if You Will is funded by the National Lottery through Sport England and delivered by Bury Council.

The awards are in partnership with Greater Manchester Sports Awards and organised by Bury Sport and Physical Activity Service and Radcliffe and Bury South Sports Forum.

Winners in each category are as follows:

• Volunteer of the year – Deborah Cliff
• Coach of the year – Ady Lewis
• Sports achiever of the year – Jacob Van Bentum
• Disabled sports achiever – Dan Bird
• Club of the year – Bury Hockey Club
• Unsung hero of the year – Jean Simpson MBE
• Changing lifestyle recognition award – Natalie Cadman
• IWIYW active female of the year – Sarah Hill

These winners will now go forward to compete at the Greater Manchester Sports Awards on 20 November.

Councillor Andrea Simpson, cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: “These awards remind us what a huge amount of sporting talent there is in Bury, whether in playing, coaching or volunteering. They fully deserve our recognition and thanks for helping to ensure that sport and getting active and healthy in general is thriving in our borough.”

ENDS

Press release issued: 12 November 2015.

Picture: Winners of this year’s Bury Sports Awards (from left) Sarah Hill, Jean Simpson MBE, Deborah Cliff, the Mayor of Bury, Cllr Stella Smith, Natalie Cadman, Ady Lewis, Dan Bird, and Claire Makin and Lisa Davies of Bury Hockey Club.