On Wednesday 26th March the Friends of Sam Wright Committee were awarded a national Everyday Heroes Award from St John Ambulance for their wonderful fundraising and awareness raising work to help save lives in their local community.

Since 2012, the Friends of Sam Wright Committee have been fundraising for CRY in order to provide heart screenings for the local community.

In 2013, the committee joined forces with St John Ambulance, and we held our second annual CRY fundraiser at Sam Wright’s former school, Woodlands in Allestree, Derby. We also raised enough money to be able to purchase a life-saving defibrillator for the school.

Following this, members of the committee, the school and the public have received first aid training through St John Ambulance and have also learnt how to use a defibrillator.

As a result of our efforts with CRY and St John Ambulance, the committee was nominated for a national award called an Everyday Heroes Award.

St John Ambulance Everyday Heroes Awards were designed to recognise the nation’s lifesavers and reward the hard work of individuals or groups who campaign on behalf of the charity.

Members of the committee attended a star-studded awards ceremony at the Lancaster London Hotel on 26th March 2014, at which received a champagne reception before being escorted to a VIP area!

We were seated for a delicious meal before the awards’ host Tess Daly welcomed all the finalists and winners were announced.

Friends of Sam Wright were up against 2 other finalists in the First Aid Champion category, but nonetheless we were crowned the winners, and our award was presented by retired footballer and cardiac arrest survivor Fabrice Muamba!

The event was also supported by HRH Sophie, Countess of Wessex, TV’s Matthew Wright, Embarrassing bodies’ Dr Dawn Harper, and reality TV star Sam Faiers.

We were extremely excited to have won the award and it was a perfect tribute to Sam, who would be so proud. It has inspired us even more to continue our work and achieve all our goals!”

Dani West