Volunteer of the Year - Michael Badham

Photo: Laura Wild

Michael Badham collects his award from the Mayor of Rochdale, Councillor Zulfiqar Ali

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Michael Badham, 61, from Middleton was named ‘Volunteer of the Year’ this evening (Thursday 3 June 2010) at a prestigious awards ceremony held at the Rochdale Town Hall.

Mr Badham was nominated for the award by Addiction and Dependency Solutions (ADS) where he has been a volunteer for the past three years.

After receiving the award he said: “I can’t believe it. It is brilliant, ADS is a brilliant organisaiton and it is very much a privilege to work for them.”

Mr Badham’s nomination shone as it detailed the work he has done with addicts not only in Rochdale but also Greater Manchester.

“I decided to volunteer after being made redundant from my job at the post office, I was 57 and I just thought I want to do something different.”

Steward Dobson, Development Officer for Volunteer Centre Rochdale explained that Mr Badham had been chosen as the winner because the nomination stated he had worked with difficult and desperate people and it 'wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say Mr Badham has saved lives in his time as a volunteer.'

Mr Dobson added: “Michael once had troubles of his own but he turned his life around and has helped others do the same. He has worked very hard and has achieved all this whilst caring for his poorly wife.”

The awards ceremony was hosted by the Volunteer Centre and Vinvolved Rochdale to recognise the achievements of those in the voluntary sector.

Awards were also presented to:

Older volunteer of the year – Kevin Davies of the Carers Resource Centre
Younger volunteer of the year – Kevin Whitehead of Link4Life
Best youth involving volunteer group – Heywood Youth Link
Group of volunteers of the year – The Argos Community Project Team

Awards were presented by various councillors and the Mayor of Rochdale Councillor Zulfiqar Ali.

Mr Ali told the 150 guests in the great hall that volunteers are the unsung heroes of society, he said: “In Rochdale there are many good members of the community, some of them are sitting here and they do excellent work they should be very proud of themselves. I wish them all the best for the future.”

The Deputy Leader of Rochdale Council, Councillor Ashley Dearnley added: “It is a great honour to be here. I have attended many of these events over the years and I think the first one was when I was Mayor of Rochdale. The importance of the voluntary sector in Rochdale goes without saying, there are so many talented people providing vital services and without volunteers Rochdale would be that much worse.

“Volunteers are often described as ‘third sector’ that is inaccurate in my mind, volunteers are the first sector and are the most important people in this borough.”

Everybody who was nominated for an award also received a certificate.