Highlight of the Awards shows!

This is definitely one of the highlights of the year, The Pride of Britain Awards. I’m not nationalistic, I think there’s too much of that about, but when it comes to the achievements of these extraordinary ‘ordinary’ people, yes, we should be rightly proud of them, whether they’re British or not, that’s more or less irrelevant. The fact is they’re British people, but I have no doubt whatsoever there are amazing ‘ordinary’ people in every country in the world.

The Awards were shown a week or two ago, but as usual I recorded it to watch it later, it’s just a habit of mine. It’s something I always enjoy watching, and I want to relish it, and maybe even watch it a second time. There’s something amazingly heartwarming about the stories behind each of the awards. Some are tales of incredible bravery, some show the indomitable spirit to keep going when all hope seems lost, some are examples of a single individual who never gave up, or decided they would bring about a change, even when the rest of the world, or at least the government, had failed to fix a problem.

Helping kids who can’t cope at school

One winner was an elderly couple, he in his 90s and she in her 70s, if I recall, and in their later years, after seeing a news item about a young girl who’d thrown herself to her death from a bridge due to endless bullying, decided they should do something to change things. They didn’t set up a website, or start a campaign, or try to enlist the help of a few celebrities … no, they just turned their own house into a school! A special school to help kids who were finding ordinary schooling too much for them. One bedroom became a science lab, another something else, the garden became a mini playing field, the shed became a music room. It was amazing to see … it was a real school, and these people who set it up, they were pensioners …

They learned what they’d need to do to qualify as a proper school, and they took on some wonderful staff (all at their own expense). Now the school, small though it is, is helping bring out the real kids, the ones that were hiding inside frightened children. Those kids have been given new lives now, and are thriving in a supportive environment, when ‘the system’ had already failed them.

He saved his dad by applying CPR

One winner was a young boy who found his dad collapsed and dying at home. He phoned for an ambulance, and in the meantime he carefully followed instructions and administered CPR to his dad. Amazing to watch a recreation of what happened, and to hear the actual emergency call. That little kid saved his dad’s life, and his dad obviously appreciates it and loves him to death!

Breathing new life into a dying community!

There was a woman who had lived for years in a run down area, in high rise flats. She could remember when it had been a lovely area, and she’d watched it gradually become overrun with drug dealers and thugs. When she was attacked and became yet another victim, she vowed to change things. She organised a local group to clean the place up and instil some pride once more into the community. It’s a happy place now, and crime is down by a remarkable degree. As Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, said, he’d love to be able to take credit for the improvement, but he knew it was all down to her. She’s been threatened and abused, but she never gave up, and she, with the help of lots of others in the area, has changed it from a place of nightmares to a dream of a community.

One little girl, a sufferer of a horrific disease that causes the skin to be paper thin, is at the worst end of the spectrum, as far as the condition goes. She suffers hours of torture every day, just to have her dressings removed and replaced. Even the slightest knock or bruise causes severe damage to her skin. But has she settled for the way things are? No, she’s started fundraising to find a cure for the condition, and she’s proved to be remarkably good at it.

Medics become real heroes when they ignore safety advice

When a rollercoaster crashed at Alton Towers, emergency workers were faced with a big problem; the rollercoaster car was stuck high up in a virtually unreachable position and the occupants were literally bleeding to death. Ignoring safety warnings, the medics managed to reach them and apply first aid. Their determination to help, even at very real personal risk, saved lives that day. Two of the young occupants of the rollorcoaster car, both teenage girls, lost a leg that day, but they know they owe their lives to the selfless acts of those heroic medics.

The stories go on and on, each one more heartrending than the last, and it was amazing to see the awards being presented by genuinely humbled celebrities. David Beckham, Little Mix, Ozzy Osbourne, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, Bruce Forsyth, Holly Willoughby, Barbara Windsor, the list goes on and on. And the award winners absolutely loved being surprised and feted by the celebrities, specially the young kids who were on a visit to Madame Tussauds in London and rushed to take a selfie with the waxwork of Olly Murs … who immeditately shocked them by ‘coming alive’!

The Awards show to outshine all the others

Yeah, I absolutely love the Pride of Britain Awards. I love the Academy Awards, and the Baftas too, and lots of other ceremonies, but the Pride of Britain puts all the others in the shade. This is a celebration of ordinary people, but ordinary people who’ve done extraordinary things, or become real heroes. If I could only ever watch one Awards show, it would always, and unhesitatingly, be this one.

Oh yeah, and the real reason I didn’t see it till today? Well, it’s because I always try to watch it on my own, that’s all. It’s not some kind of weird habit, or phobia or anything, it’s just that … well, me being a real hardnosed character … well, how can I put this … well it’s not easy for me to watch in company, that’s all. I don’t know what it is, but I always find I’ve got something in my eye, makes my eyes water a bit … coincidence really, I suppose, but it always happens when I watch the Awards. And I don’t like anyone to see me constantly dabbing at my eyes like I’ve got a really irritating eye infection or something, know what I mean?

Here’s a short video of some of the best moments of previous Pride of Britain Awards. I do hope you don’t have an eye infection as well, it could make it a bit awkward for you …