10 Mar 2023 Community

Phil and Karen nominated for volunteer of the year award

Our amazing volunteers play a huge part in The Kirkwood movement, without them we simply wouldn’t exist. Their impact is felt across our whole charity from fundraising and admin to retail to caring for patients on our In-Patient Unit. We’re immensely proud to announce that two of our brilliant volunteers, Karen and Phil Hayhurst have been nominated for a prestigious award. 

They were nominated by Cancer Research in the volunteer of the year award category at The Yorkshire Choice Awards, the winners will be announced in June. 

A formidable husband and wife team, Karen and Phil have volunteered with The Kirkwood for the past five years, doing an array of jobs, including volunteering at big events. They both played a huge role in our art trail last year.  

On supporting The Kirkwood and being nominated for the award Phil said: "It's a real honour for us to be nominated, we didn't expect it but it is great that we are up for the award, we put a lot of hours in to volunteering with The Kirkwood and love doing it too, we help out in all sorts of ways, so to be recognised for those efforts is fantastic." 

Karen added: "It's brilliant to be up for the award but we don't do the volunteering for the accolades. My mum was cared for by The Kirkwood and so I have a real connection to the charity. I think my favourite part of volunteering is the people you meet and the friends you make. I really enjoyed the Snowdogs Support Life, art trail. We looked after the dogs in Slaithwaite and Holmfirth and were really proud to do that. My favourite part was seeing all the dogs together on the opening weekend and seeing all the children very excited to see the designs." 

With Karen having a strong connection to The Kirkwood, both her and Phil wanted to reiterate how proud they were to volunteer for the charity. 

Phil commented: "The Kirkwood is a special place, and we are very proud to be part of the big team that keeps the charity going. We’ve been nominated for this award, but really it’s for all the volunteers past and present, volunteering for such a worthy cause its worth celebrating." 

We’d like to wish a big ‘good luck’ to Phil and Karen from everyone at The Kirkwood, please show your support and vote for Phil and Karen by clicking the link HERE.