Two North Lakes men have been honoured with accolades at the prestigious celebrity-packed Pride of Britain Awards which were aired on television last night.
Threlkeld born Andy Airey, who was managing director at Keswick’s George Fisher for nine years until 2016, and his 3 Dads Walking partners, Mike Palmer and Tim Owen, received a special recognition award at the ceremony held at the Grosvenor Hotel in London on Monday night.
The trio have just completed the second of their mammoth charity walks and have raised more than £1m for the national charity Papyrus which is dedicated to the prevention of young suicide.
Their first walk, which covered 320 miles, started at Andy’s house at Morland, in the Eden Valley, and visited Sale, where Mike lives, and finished at the village of Shouldham, in Norfolk, where Tim resides.
Their second walk covered 624 miles and visited all the Parliamentary buildings in the UK, starting at Stormont in Belfast on World Suicide Prevention Day (September 9) and finishing at Westminster on World Mental Health Day (October 10). The walks were in honour of their beloved daughters – Sophie Airey, 29, Beth Palmer, 17, and Emily Owen, 19, who were lost to suicide.
They were presented with the award by former footballer and Sky pundit Chris Kamara, former England rugby union captain Chris Robshaw and boxer David Haye after being introduced by compere and media personality Carol Vorderman who interviewed the trio on stage.
“The main thing is that the Pride of Britain has given us a platform to highlight Papyrus and suicide prevention because the Government is not doing enough,” said Andy, who was also interviewed on BBC Breakfast yesterday morning. “It was all very weird and very surreal.”
The dads have since launched a petition to get suicide prevention added to the school curriculum and it now has more than 132,000 signatures and is set to prompt a debate in Parliament.
Also attending the awards was Kerry Irving, from Keswick, whose adventures with his spaniel Max attracted worldwide headlines.
Dubbed “The Miracle Dog”, Max proved to be a lifeline for Kerry after a car accident in 2006 left him in excruciating pain and with profound mental health issues.
The pair went on to raise thousands of pounds for charity – and although Max died earlier this year, Kerry has continued his good work with his remaining spaniels Paddy and Harry, and by setting up a fundraising group called Max Out in the Lake District.
Together they raised over £45,000 for the Great North Air Ambulance Service on a dog walk held to mark what would have been Max’s 15th birthday.
Kerry and his dogs donned best bib and tucker to attend the Pride of Britain Awards, walking the red carpet and rubbing shoulders with a host of celebrities including Peter Andre and Mary Berry.
And although they didn’t win on the night, they were commended on social media by the Great North Air Ambulance team, who said: “While Max Out in the Lake District may not have taken home The Pride of Britain Awards trophy, they’ll always be winners in our eyes.”
