AN awards evening was held for those championing their community by HEALS of Malmesbury earlier this month.

The event recognised the efforts of local people who had been giving up their time to help others.

HEALS offers a range of vital services for those in need including the unemployed, the vulnerable and the disadvantaged, and rely on fundraising to carry on their work.

Alison Cross-Jones, volunteer manager at HEALS, was pleased to be recognising the great work local volunteers do for the group.

“The purpose of evening was to thank all those people who’ve supported HEALS in the past year,” she said.

“We thanked the local people who raised over £4,000 for us by skydiving; an incredible effort.”

Malmesbury School pupils were awarded certificates for their work as the organisation's editorial team, which produces the HEALS quarterly community magazine.

They also designed the cover of the new HEALS community cookbook for people with learning difficulties, diabetes or a visual impairment.

Alison said: "We wanted to give a special thank you to our editorial team who are made up of sixth form students at Malmesbury Secondary School.

“They not only write our In Touch community magazine but they give their time freely for other activities at HEALS. They’re an incredible bunch of young people and we're all proud of them."

HEALS chairman, Gavin Grant, spoke at the evening, thanking the community at large for supporting the work HEALS does while Malmesbury Town Mayor John Gundry presented the awards.

“We were absolutely delighted that the mayor could come along and support us, and all the team thanks him,” said Alison.

“The evening was an opportunity for people to come and find out about HEALS and the mayor said he had found the evening interesting and inspiring and felt that the group had not received the recognition in the town it deserves.

"Following the evening someone who came down, not knowing about HEALS previously, dropped in a £50 donation to the centre."

HEALS will be having another evening of recognition for volunteers before Christmas.