Best of Wearside shortlist revealed

THE DECISION WAS NOT EASY FOR OUR JUDGES

Here is what you have all been waiting for.

The shortlist for this year’s Best of Wearside Awards has now been revealed.

A panel of judges met last week to decide on a shortlist of champions who are still in the running for a Best of Wearside Award.

We are now all set for the grand finale of this year’s competition, which aims to reward those unsung heroes who do fantastic work in the community.

Over the last few months, we have received so many incredible entries from people in all walks of life across Wearside and now our aim is to honour some truly deserving heroes.

This year’s awards have been backed by some fantastic sponsors - headline sponsor BGL Group, partner sponsor Gentoo and category sponsors Stagecoach, Calsonic Kansei, Audi, and Northern.

We thank them all for their fantastic backing.

This has been a wonderful year for competition entries and the judging panel had no easy task when it met to draw up a shortlist.

There were outstanding stories of achievement in every category and that’s down to the standard of people we have in our communities.

But eventually, the judges did manage to select a shortlist for each category.

Now we are gearing up to the final part of the competition, which will be to unveil our Best of Wearside champions, and we will do that in a grand finale at the Stadium of Light on Thursday, March 28.

Make sure you follow our live coverage of the night. You can follow us on both Facebook: www.facebook. com/sunderlandechoonline and via our twitter: @sunderlandecho

Then after what is sure to be a fantastic night, we will bring you photographs, news and interviews in a supplement to be published in the Echo the following week.

Best of Wearside Awards judges. Front, from left, Gavin Houghton, from Gentoo, Victoria Manghan from Calsonic Kansei, Emily Downes from BGL Group. Back from left, Ian Thompson from Calsonic Kansei and Gavin Foster, managing editor of the Sunderland Echo.