SCHOOLGIRL Rebecka Ollier was crowned Champion of Champions in the Chronicle-ScottishPower Your Champions gala dinner in on Friday.
The 12-year-old was joined by a host of other heroes and heroines from across the region to be saluted at a glittering ceremony at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Chester on Friday compèred by TV newsreader Trevor Green.
The accolades at the 20th annual Your Champions awards were presented by football legend Ian St John who was the star guest.
Ian, who became a football great after he transferred to Liverpool in May 1961 for more than double the previous highest transfer fee paid by the Anfield board, £37,500, was proud to be involved, he said: “I am so pleased to be here,” he said. “It’s a terrific event and a true eye-opener as football tends to shield you from what goes on in the real community.
“Believe me, everyone here deserves a prize. Everyone in this room is a champion. All your stories are wonderful and heart- warming, but some are also heartbreaking.”
Guests were welcomed by Richard Tasker, head of customer contact at ScottishPower, and Warren Butcher, managing director of the Chronicle’s parent group Trinity Mirror Cheshire and North Wales.
Mr Butcher told the award winners and guests: “Our newspapers and websites are not always brimming with good news stories so it gives me great pleasure to chronicle all your achievements.
“It’s you that make events like these possible but you see yourselves as just normal people and that’s what makes you all so special.”
ScottishPower’s Mr Tasker added: “Quite often the unsung heroes are the people who don’t want to be recognised but it’s important communities and businesses do recognise the good work they do.”
All those who received awards were nominated by Chronicle readers for their contribution to the community over the year in five different categories – Champion of the Year, Young Champion, Champion School, Sporting Champion and Champion Team.
There were winners in each of the seven Trinity Mirror Cheshire circulation areas of Mid Cheshire, South Cheshire, Chester, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn & Widnes, Flintshire and Wrexham.
They all came together for the awards ceremony, which saw an overall winner crowned in each category and at the end Rebecka, of Newfield Drive, Crewe, was saluted by all as Champion of Champions.
She was nominated for the Young Person of the Year category after raising more than £3,000 for the Ronald McDonald House at Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool in memory of her elder brother Jimmie who was cared for there up until his death in May 2006.
Six-year-old Jacob Marsland won Mid Cheshire’s Young Person award for his unfailing zest for life in the midst of suffering from a rare form of cancer. He was unable to attend Friday’s gala dinner.
Silver medal winning Olympic oarsman Matt Langridge won Mid Cheshire’s sports category.
Action woman Barbara Turner - the mainstay of Northwich Carnival - won the Champion Person category.
Handley Hill School, who fought an ultimately unsuccessful campaign to save their school, won the school category and CHAIN, the Anti-Incineration Network fighting plans for a massive incinerator in Lostock, picked up the Team prize.
Brian Cartwright, chairman of CHAIN, said: “This is a great honour. I’m particularly pleased that it recognises teamwork, which is so essential for a campaign group like CHAIN.
“It’s also interesting to see that the judges have noted that we are an organisation whose activities are in the interests of the community.”
