THE Herefordshire Community Champions awards were set up to recognise all of the good work carried out in the community by individuals and groups.

These people usually look for no recognition for the good work they do so these awards, run by Herefordshire Council in partnership with Cargill and supported by the Hereford Times, gives us the chance to say thank you to them.

The awards were launched last year by council chairman, Brian Wilcox, and due to the excellent response will become an annual event.

This year's awards were launched last week and members of the public can now send in their nominations.

The categories are Volunteer of the Year, Apprentice of the Year, Caring Champion, Sustainability Champion and Youth Champion.

Last year Kris Saunders-Stowe a wheelchair user, was given the Greatest Achievement award for his role in becoming a fitness instructor, a role which led to him setting up his unique exercise classes Wheely Good Fitness, which has gone on to be internationally popular with its release as a home exercise DVD.

Although this particular award has changed slightly this year, the Ross-on-Wye resident wants to highlight the awards.

He said: "It was very humbling. For me, I am not materialistic, with Wheely Good Fitness I don't get paid for a lot of it but I am passionate about what I do.

"You notice the difference and changes in people.

"It is just a bit of a pat on the back when you get something additional like this award.

"It makes you realise that what you are doing is more important than you perhaps realise.

"It gives you an extra boost to keep doing what you are doing."

After he received the award the 46-year-old was asked to do a number of talks for charities.

He said he thinks the awards are a great idea as individually it gives people a boost and it makes the public more aware of the groups who are doing good work.

Mr Saunders-Stowe added: "There is a lot of good going on around us- a lot of people making a contribution to the community. It is good to know what is going on and things aren't as bad they seem sometimes."

He runs eight classes a week for both disabled and able-bodied people. He runs classes at Point 4, Halo's Hereford Leisure Pool and Ross-on-Wye Leisure Pool.

He said: "All of the classes, apart from one, are mixed ability. At Ross in particular 95 percent are able-bodied."

And 2016 turned into a very busy year for Mr Saunders-Stowe. He is an ambassador for disability charity Scope and worked on their campaign #EndTheAwkward.

He was filmed for a short film to show the awkward things that can happen when shopping if you're disabled.

He was invited to the University of Limerick to do three days of workshops and talks with occupational therapy students.

Mr Saunders-Stowe said they also held an open day adding: "We demonstrated that disabled and non-disabled don't need to be separated when it comes to fitness.

"They did a circuit class as an able-bodied person and then in a wheelchair to appreciate they didn't need to look at it differently."

And in Brighton he did some filming for a pilot comedy for TV.

Last year the Liz Connors Local Community award went to the South Wye Community Association and the volunteers of Belmont Community Centre.

The management and volunteers put on weekly coffee mornings, twice-monthly luncheon clubs and manage events throughout the year for young and old alike.

The Volunteer of the Year award went to Sharon Fellows, who has spent the past 13 years as secretary at Leominster Town Football Club where she became the first woman to be appointed as a director of the Herefordshire FA.

Apprentice of the Year was Will Skinner, a fourth year engineering apprentice at Cargill who has been heavily involved in a care in the community project at Burghill School, and helped set up the Little Princess Trust ball.

The Youth Champion award went to Georgia Jennings who has been volunteering at Riding for the Disabled for the past four years.

She has learnt how to hoist so she can lift riders from their wheelchairs onto the horses.

The five winners receive £500 and will be invited to an awards ceremony at Hereford Shirehall.

Nominations for the awards will be accepted until 12pm on Wednesday, February 22.

To find out more, or submit nominations, visit herefordshire.gov.uk/champions17.

Paper nomination forms are also available from any of the market town councils’ offices or at the Town Hall and Plough Lane offices in Hereford.