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| Celebs and award winners on the shiny stage |
I’ve often said how blogging has been the inspiration for so much for me. And once again I can say this has been the case, but with knobs on this time.
Recently I had the enormous honour of being invited to be a blogging ambassador for a couple of categories at STV’s RBS – Finding Scotland’s Real Heroes awards. I’d quickly like to add that I have not done anything heroic, nor am I planning to.
What happened was I went to the full-on red-carpet, wall-to-wall celeb fest that was the award ceremony in Edinburgh, got to interview the winners of two categories and then got to blog and tweet about it. Fun, interesting and, is it turns out, inspiring.
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| Your ace bloggers – think of the A-Team only without the van |
Here’s what I learned:
The extraordinary is everywhere. It really is. In the heart of possibly the least likely situations, people are going that bit further and trying that bit harder and boy does it make a difference.
I don’t want freedom of choice. Imagine having to pick a winner from the array of super heroes shortlisted. Nope, it would have been awful. Thankfully, I didn’t have to. All the categories were voted on by the public. Phew.
Little things make a difference. It might only be a fund-raiser, or following through on some good intentions. But they quickly add up to something enormous.
Cliches are there for a reason. Because they’re true. I usually avoid them like the plague and try to find another way of getting the point across. Only this time, I couldn’t. They really were all winners and had gone the extra mile.
Celebs and glitter aren’t just about froth. The nominees and their supporters deserved to be made a proper five-star fuss of and that’s just what happened. A-list stars mingled with the heroes, listening to their stories and laughing at their jokes. Really.
If they can do it, so can we. It’s not about putting in all the hours you have every day, handing over all your money, though it could be. It’s about actually getting on and doing the things you think might help, not just thinking about them, worrying they might be a bit hard and not bothering.
The categories I was chosen to represent were:
Carer of the Year. An astonishing group of people. Honestly, it’s sometimes hard enough to look after my own family and we are very fortunate. Look at the people who care for family, friends, their communities and strangers.
Huge congratulations to the winner Maw’s Mafia, from East Kilbride, who provide a locally based club or hang-out for young adults with special needs.
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| Maw’s Mafia and Carol Smillie |
Hero Neighbour of the Year. Community lynch-pins who are the beating heart of where they live and work and who make things better for everyone.
The well-deserved winners were Mo and Roxy Razzaq from Blantyre whose shop is the centre of a move to change their community for the better.
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| Mo and Roxy with their award – well done. |
Congratulations to everyone who was nominated and you can see the awards show and the story of these people on the STV Player.