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Post sub wins prestigious Pride of Britain Award

Sub-editor Liz Carnell was last night presented with a Pride of Britain award for her influential anti-bullying website www.bullying.co.uk.

She is one of 17 winners at a star-studded ceremony hosted by Carol Vorderman and run by the Daily Mirror, which will be broadcast tonight on ITV.

The accolade came after her son – one of the charity’s trustees – nominated her for recognition.

And now the Yorkshire Evening Post sub is hoping the national exposure will help win funding to make the website and its work more effective.

She said: “It’s the biggest awards event of its kind in the UK so it is a huge honour to be among the winners.

“Bullying Online is getting a huge amount of publicity and recognition from the Government and the only thing we don’t have is any more money.”

Liz used the ceremony to announce Bullying Online’s major national survey into school bullying in early 2006.

She said: “When I started up the charity six years ago, unfortunately it took off straight away because the problem is so widespread.

“Schools don’t have to record incidents of bullying apart from racist ones, so no one knows how widespread the problem really is.

“We hope that parents, teachers and children will take part. We need to secure funding and this kind of exposure will help.”

“The people in the Evening Post newsroom also deserve thanks for helping us win this award. Running the charity can be quite intrusive and there are times when I have had to take calls at work.

“Their co-operation makes it so much easier for me and the editor, Neil Hodgkinson has been a wonderful support, with the managing director Chris Green also backing what we do.”

  • Liz shows the website
  • The awards judges included Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, singer Ms Dynamite, Daily Mirror editor Richard Wallace, chief nursing officer Chris Beasley, Olympic rower James Cracknell, GMTV’s Fiona Phillips and heart surgeon Prof Sir Magdi Yacoub.

    The 18 winners include an eight-year-old girl who became Britain’s youngest midwife after helping her mum deliver her brother at home. Also honoured will be the five McCartney sisters, from Belfast, who took their fight for justice against the IRA to the White House after IRA members murdered their brother. And Jane Tomlinson who, despite suffering from terminal cancer, has raised more than £1m with sporting achievements including cycling across Europe.

    Prince Charles said: “These remarkable awards remind us of the compassion, decency and courage which still exists in every corner of the land.”

    Tony Blair says it’s a chance to “celebrate what’s best about our country”.

    The awards ceremony will be broadcast as a 90-minute special on ITV1 from 9pm tonight.

    More than 100 stars from the worlds of showbusiness, sport and politics will be there, among them will be Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas, Victoria Beckham, Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, Sir Bob Geldof, Dame Shirley Bassey, the Duchess of York, Angelica Houston, Jamie Oliver, Dame Kelly Holmes, David Walliams, Matt Lucas and Sir Cliff Richard.

    Other famous people attending include Denise Lewis, Paul O’Grady, Joan Collins, Gary Lineker, Des Lynam, Gordon Ramsay, Lawrence Dallaglio, McFly, Charlotte Church, Rachel Stevens, Girls Aloud and Yoko Ono.