The Love Barrow Awards - from a very unique perspective

Friday 11th March

I was extremely honored and proud to have been nominated for an award at this years Love Barrow Awards. The Awards are a community project, rewarding anyone who has made a contribution to the town or an extraordinary achievement. There were lots of categories such as Group Project of the Year, Citizen of the Year and the one I was nominated for was Carer of the Year. The awards ceremony and dinner started at 5:45pm but I had a busy day at work first - setting up for the Love Barrow Awards.

Getting the tables into position

As Ive mentioned in previous blogs, I work at the Forum Theatre where the awards evening was to be held. I was still feeling a little uneasy about coming to my place of work that evening and I was unusually nervous. Thursday night we had the energetic and youthful Lulu on stage (she was amazing!) so we had a lot of work to do, to get everything ready for the night. The forum is council run and has a relatively small, but highly motivated and dedicated team of staff. We all started on the main theatre, folding the main bank of 500 seats down and driving them back to create a large floor space.

Ready for some chairs

From there we rolled out some round tables and set them out as per the table plan. Once they were "chaired up" we moved out of the way to let the caterers in to lay the tables. At the same time our very professional technical team were setting up the stage side of things, sound checking, plotting lights and generally transforming the stage and room into a professional looking event. It is a big job to set up for an event such as this and it takes a lot of planning and a lot of hard work.

The transformation is complete

The Love Barrow Committee work extremely hard throughout the year, planning every thing down to the last detail and they are some of the most dedicated and friendly people you will ever have the pleasure of meeting. Its always great to work with them and we always have a laugh throughout the day. After the room was set up we concentrated on the rest of the venue, getting the front of house foyer ready for a red carpet drinks reception. I was sent packing before this to go home and get ready for the evening.

Roll it out!

I got home and Joanne was already getting ready. She has to take her time and get dressed in stages. Oliver was staying at my sisters so I jumped in the bath before getting dressed myself. After Id helped Joanne finish up we got a lift to the forum. I was still really nervous going back to my place of work, but I had told myself to relax and enjoy the night. The evening staff had put the red carpet out and we were greeted on it by a salute from the local Sea Cadets. I walked into the venue and was immediately grabbed by the evenings photographer Nick, whom I know very well,  for a shoot of Joanne and I.

We made our way through the crowd to get a drink and I felt really out of place. I felt like I should be overseeing the night, not attending it, but my mate John was in charge tonight and doing a sterling job. I necked a bucks fizz and went to get a pint from the bar. Joanne was talking to some people she knew and I was tapped on the shoulder by John. "There's a phone call at the desk for you mate" he said. I thought it was my sister, phoning about Oliver so I made my way over to the phone. John grabbed my arm and dragged my to a room off reception. What the hell was going on!

Surprise guests, my amazing work friends with Joanne.

I opened the door and my amazing boss and work colleagues jumped out on me. They had told me they couldn't come but had secretly gotten tickets to come and support me. I was so made up and I felt really special that they had done this for me. They then presented me with a card and hamper with a bottle of Brandy in it and I welled up. I was so emotional and grateful for the gift. I then found out that everyone at work had been in on the surprise including the Love Barrow team!!  We all had our picture taken and went to our tables for the start of the evening.

Team Forum

The theatre looked extremely impressive in the gentle shades of blue and lilac the crew had lit it in. I sat and enjoyed a beautifully cooked meal and dessert before the awards started. The local and very popular Radio DJ, Danny, was the compere and presented the evening extremely well, adding a slick energy to the proceedings. I was getting quite drunk by this point and had to stop myself before I became totally slaughtered! After watching 3 sets of inspiring awards it came to my category, Carer of the Year. I got quite emotional watching my video and fought back tears.

The lady sat next to me was named the winner and I congratulated her before she went up for her award, I know Janet and she thoroughly deserved to win. I soon followed her to receive my runners up award together with the other nominee. We were whisked away for a photo as the next award category started then went back to our table.

Carer of the Year Janet (middle) with runner up Bev

 I was buzzing by this point and totally relaxed, so much that I really enjoyed the rest of the night and forgot I was at my work place. After a few more awards and drinks the function finished and we made our way to the after show party to dance the night away. Joanne was with me the whole night (she normally has to go home early because of the pain) and she really enjoyed herself. She had been in a lot of pain throughout the night but stayed to support me. I was so glad she stayed out and we had a really nice evening together. I hope it gives her a bit more confidence so we can start to go out again (even if its for a short time).

My beautiful wife and I.

The Love Barrow awards are a lovely snapshot of the people of barrow, of the good in the town and the amazing selflessness that exists within us. I felt immensely proud to have been nominated and came runner up to an extremely worthy winner. It did feel that there were no losers on the night and it was a mass celebration of our town. All of the nominees were worthy of the title and totally inspirational. It was an incredibly humbling experience to hear of these wonderful groups and individuals and to see what they achieve first hand. It was also great to see one of the organizers, John Irving, given an award for his outstanding achievement over the 11 years of awards. An award that was so well deserved and received a standing ovation from the audience.

My work colleagues had made the night for me with their surprise and we had a lot of laughs (and drinks) at the after show party. Joanne enjoyed herself and we both felt it had brought us closer together again after the last few weeks of hell we'd been through!

I loved the experience and cant wait for the next one - although I will be only working it!

Thanks to the Love Barrow Team, my friends at Workshop Media for making the video, Nick from Loveit Studios for the great pictures and to everyone who works at the forum. You all made it such a special evening. :)