On the evening of 16th of May 2024, I rather reluctantly left the house to head to the SoGlos Lifestyle awards, at the Sub-Rooms in Stroud. The reason for my reluctance was a poorly dog who looked at me woefully, with big brown eyes, as I left. But I had a promise from my son, Jacob, that she would be well looked after.
As I drove in, I reflected on the different feelings I might have, if Allsorts won, or not, and the difference that this would make to our team, the families we work with and our supporters. I dared to hope that it might be possible to win the ‘Charity of the Year’ category, but I knew that we were up against some wonderful Gloucestershire charities, so anything could happen!
I met Rosa, Allsorts Deputy CEO and we walked in together to a tremendous welcome from the SoGlos team. This was all new to me; I have never been to an awards ceremony before. I quickly picked up on and joined the nervous anticipation and excitement of all the charities and businesses there. Rosa and I enjoyed chatting to a couple of local business owners and employees, The Canteen in Nailsworth and Woodchester Valley Vineyard.
Then the awards started, with 19 categories of business and ‘Charity of the Year’ the 18th to be announced. Each category had a sponsor who came up onto the stage for two announcements, one for highly commended, the other for the winner. Watching the celebrations of the winners was brilliant, with the audience cheering them on – especially the local Stroud winners!
By the time our category was announced, I was beginning to get hopeful that maybe we could achieve ‘Highly Commended’ and that would be a fantastic recognition of the work Allsorts does. But no, one of the other charities were highly commended. Then before I had any time to process this, Allsorts was announced as the winners. WOW!
Rosa and I received our award and were ushered into an area for photos and to join the queue of winners to be interviewed by CEO of SoGlos, Michelle Fyrne. All of a sudden, we were called back into the entrance of the awards hall to hear who the overall winner was, and to our absolute amazement, it was Allsorts.
Rosa and I made it back onto the stage somehow, both of us can’t really recall how we did, but the photos show it all, we were ecstatically happy to have this recognition of Allsorts team’s hard work.
Thank you to Pro Global who were Headline Partner of the event and chose us as ‘winners of the winners’.
As always, life is a rollercoaster and by 9am the next morning, I was learning that my beautiful basset hound needed emergency surgery! She has made a great recovery and has forgiven me for leaving her. So, a really happy ending – in all ways.
Jane Jones has been the Chief Executive at Allsorts since 2020
Trained and qualified as an Occupational therapist. Jane soon developed an interest in working with families who had children with additional needs, providing equipment and adaptations.
Jane is the proud mother of four sons, one of whom has many challenges in life. It was he who first brought her into contact with Allsorts. When her family moved up from Cornwall to be closer to both family and the Bristol hospitals.
She has two basset hounds and her son, Jacob, has a shitzu cross. They enjoy walking them and generally spending time with them. Jane has been involved with Allsorts since 2018.