Royal Mail honours nation’s unsung heroes

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Royal Mail honours nation’s unsung heroes with 1st Class People Awards

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THIRTY POSTMEN AND WOMEN AWARDED FOR ACTS OF BRAVERY, LIFE SAVING, COMMUNITY SERVICE, VOLUNTEERING AND CHARITY WORK BY THE ONE SHOW’S CHRISTINE BLEAKLEY AT LONDON CEREMONY

A charity founder, fundraiser and race organiser has been named Royal Mail’s "Postman of the Year" by TV presenter Christine Bleakley at the company’s 1st Class People Awards.

Lancing postman James Macdonald collected his accolade from Christine and Royal Mail Managing Director Mark Higson at a ceremony in London where awards were presented to 30 regional winners from all over the UK, and where the national winners were announced.

Heroes Run, the flagship event of the charity Passingiton James set up has so far raised nearly £300,000.

James ran the 2004 Dublin marathon with a friend, dressed up as Batman and Robin to raise money to buy shoes for children at the Tenderfoot school in Nairobi; the idea for a ‘super hero fun run’ grew from there.

The Heroes Run in Brighton - all competitors dress up as their favourite super hero - has a 5k, 10k and a race for children and has been an annual event ever since, growing in popularity; last year it attracted over 1,100 runners.

Six years on Passingiton has expanded the Tenderfoot School in Kenya, begun a five-year building project for the Dreamlands School in Ghana, and is about to begin a project in conjunction with the Fresh Start Foundation to build a learning/community centre for the Kwinella First School in Gambia.

Royal Mail was contacted by thousands of customers who nominated their postman or woman as an ‘unsung hero’ in these popular annual awards.

Christine Bleakley said: "In the UK, our postmen and women are a group of very remarkable people who contribute so much to our society. Their acts of kindness, fundraising and commitment to volunteering, make a real difference to the local communities where they live and work."

Amongst the 30 regional award winners are 12 examples of people being saved from life threatening situations by a postman or postwoman. The national total is probably far higher with 4,500 trained first aiders who deal with emergencies every day.

Royal Mail Managing Director Mark Higson said: "Because our people make daily deliveries to all 28 million addresses in the UK they will often be the first to discover an accident, fire, or someone taken ill, and are quick to respond.

He added: "Our people are part of the local community and customers turn to the familiar face of their postman or woman for help if things go wrong - as the winners of the national bravery award discovered."

Stephen Jones from Bangor and Vinny Earl from Droylsden are joint winners of Royal Mail’s National Bravery Award for dramatic rescues.

Stephen Jones helped saved two pensioners from a house fire in his home village in North Wales. He was out on his rounds in Llanfairfechan, near Bangor, when he saw smoke coming from the house and ran inside. He helped lead the owner and an elderly resident out of the building and out of danger.

He rang the Fire Service and then went back into the house a second time to check if there was anyone else inside. He and a friend tried to douse the flames, but were beaten back by the ferocity of the fire.

The fire brigade were out at the time dealing with a fatal road accident on a major road and couldn’t have got there immediately. They said Stephen almost certainly saved the pensioners’ lives that day.

Vinny Earl twice rushed into a burning house to save a childhood friend after a gas explosion.

Vinny was chatting to a neighbour four doors away when they heard a loud bang followed by shouting. From the window he could see Kevin Murphy lying on the living room floor, ran into the blaze to help him, and pulled him out.

Kevin was badly burned and delirious, and ran back into the house to try to save his dog. Despite fire spreading from the sitting room, up the walls and stairs, Vinny went in again and dragged Kevin out.

Around 20 fire fighters tackled the blaze, caused when a gas heater exploded.

Simon Collins from New Romney Delivery Office won Royal Mail’s National Community Award.

Simon has been a volunteer lifeboat crew member, navigator and first aider for the past 10 years, on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, first at Littlestone and since 2004 with the Dungeness Lifeboat, where he lives.

The Dungeness lifeboat gets at least 20 SOS calls - ‘shouts’ - from the Coastguard each year to help people at sea. They deal with problems ranging from medical emergencies like head injuries, heart attacks and broken limbs, to mechanical problems and boats taking on water.

In 2006 Simon and fellow crew-members were awarded a gallantry medal for saving the lives of four Dutch yachtsmen from a sinking boat, in a rescue which lasted 13 hours in force 8 gales.

Simon is immersed in community life, having run a mobile disco on the Marsh for the past 25 years seeing local children progress from birthday parties, to coming of age celebrations, engagements to weddings. For 12 years he was the captain of New Romney cricket club 2nd XI and helped run the under 16’s team. In his spare time, Simon is now a DJ on Romney Marsh FM, the local community radio,

Mark Higson said: "All of these winners are fantastic examples of bravery, selflessness and helping others often in extraordinary circumstances. These examples are the tip of the iceberg and I would like to congratulate everyone who was nominated, and also say thank you to all the Royal Mail people who are doing amazing things, but want to keep out of the lime light. Everyone deserves to be recognised, and I’m delighted that they all work for Royal Mail."



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NOTES TO EDITORS:

For images from today’s ceremony of with Christine Bleakley and Mark Higson presenting the awards please call 0207 250 2468 or 0207 404 6064

Royal Mail’s 1st Class People Awards recognise and reward the often unseen work and efforts many postmen and women make during their working day and within their community. Royal Mail has some 100,000 postmen and women that deliver to the nation’s 28 million addresses.

The 1st Class People Awards are made in three categories:

• Community - for our people who make a contribution in the communities where they work and live.
• Fundraising - postmen and women donated £2.4 million last year through payroll-giving, and a further £500,000 through fundraising.
• Bravery - out on their rounds our people often come across and deal with emergencies; 4,500 Royal Mail people are trained first aiders or first responders equipped with defibrillators

The regional winners of the bravery, community, and fundraising awards each received £500 and a framed certificate. The national winners received £1000 each and a glass trophy. James Macdonald wins £1000 for the charity of his choice and as "Postman of the Year" also wins £3000 for a holiday.