TWO volunteers have been acknowledged for their selfless commitment to their communities at the Who Will Care? Awards 2017.

The prestigious awards celebrate inspirational individuals, communities, teams and businesses in Essex that make a huge difference through the work that they do.

Among the winners were Rebecca Fitzgerald, 18, from Billericay, who took the Individual Young Person Volunteer Award.

The Billericay School pupil volunteers every Saturday at St Luke’s Hospice.

She cleans the patient’s rooms, talks to them, collects drugs from Basildon Hospital, makes breakfasts, talks to families and makes them tea.

Rebecca also is key in talking to young people who are admitted to the hospice, so they have someone of a similar age. She was nominated for being a deeply caring young person who displays an emotional intelligence beyond her years. Rebecca’s commitment has also inspired other young people.

Another Billericay resident, Isabella Newsum, was a finalist for her voluntary work at SNAP and Barnado’s.

Gina Denham, from Southend, was given a special award for volunteering 30 hours a week to lead services, programmes and as chairman of Transpire.

Transpire supports people in the transgender community by providing advice, chaperones, peer mentoring, education, family support and a safe place and network to belong too.

Sue Barker, county councillor for culture, communities and customer, said: “It was extremely humbling to meet all of the inspirational people at the awards, they should all be very proud.

The range of the volunteering undertaken by all of the finalists at last night’s awards, and indeed all those nominated, illustrates the variety of ways that as individuals we can make a difference not only within our local community, but also to an individual’s life.”

Chairman of Essex County Council, John Aldridge, who was also at the awards, said: “I was honoured to be part of this years’ Who Will Care? Awards and see so many people recognised for the amazing volunteering work they do. The awards show the vast range of volunteering taking place every day in communities in our county and the wonderful people in our county that go the extra mile to help others.”