COMMUNITY AWARDS: Volunteer of the Year will be nominating for this year’s awards

Community champion Bik-Kay Talbot, last year’s Volunteer of the Year, was shocked to hear she had been nominated for an award.

Bik-Kay, 42, was recommended by the head teacher of Billingshurst Primary School, where she volunteers.

She said: “I had no idea I was going to be nominated for an award, so when the head teacher told me I phoned Pat (Slatter, event organiser) and said: “Are you sure? I can’t have got this!”

“I was very proud. It was nice to be recognised for all the things that I did at the school.”

At the Community Awards event, which Bik-Kay described as a ‘lovely evening’, she was named Volunteer of the Year.

She said: “It was nice to be thought of in that way, but we are a team of volunteers so it wasn’t just me who got the award - it was everybody.

“I am doing something that I love, and it was nice to be awarded for doing something that I love.”

Bik-Kay said she wants to nominate somebody for an award this year, but insists that the category and identity of the nominee is a ‘secret’.

As well as her work at the school, Bik-Kay volunteers at Horsham’s branch of the Alzheimer’s Society, where she also helps to recruit volunteers.

She added: “A lot of people are giving up their time, and I think if anybody volunteers they should be thanked.

“The Community Awards was a fantastic awareness event. It was good to see what other people do out there and to learn about different charities as well.

”It is very nice that the County Times recognises all the hard work people do.”

Nominations for this year’s Community Awards are open for another 13 weeks.