SHE has devoted the last 14 years to raising money voluntarily for a local charity - and now she has been nominated for an award.

Barbara Grainger, 71, of Markham Street, York, has been put forward for the York Community Pride Charity Fundraiser Of The Year award - because of her tireless efforts to generate cash for York Coronary Support Group (YCSG).

The group aims to help cardiac patients to return to as normal a life as possible after their release from hospital.

Barbara, who heads a team of several fundraisers for YCSG, masterminded the raising of about £3,000 for the group in the last year alone.

She spends her time organising and taking part in a range of fundraising activities, including refreshment stalls and tombolas, as well as telephoning supermarkets to arrange for YCSG collections at them.

The money raised goes towards subsidising, for example, exercise classes for the patients, so that they can do their best to reclaim their normal lives.

Barbara vowed to put something back into the community after her husband, David Grainger, 71, had a quadruple heart bypass in 1990.

Tony Tolhurst, chairman of YCSG, who nominated Barbara for the award, said: "I'm nominating Barbara because of the effort she's put into raising money for the group over the last 14 years. She's done such a tremendous amount of work for the group single-handedly organising things. Making all the arrangements involves quite a lot of stress and strain, in making sure everything goes to plan. Without her efforts, the group would certainly be struggling for funds to keep its activities going, because it doesn't receive any money from anywhere else."

Barbara said: "I am delighted to have been nominated. It's taken me by surprise, because I don't know whether I've done much different to anyone else. My primary motive is to try and get people back to leading as normal a life as they possibly can, and I really enjoy doing that."

There is still time to nominate unsung heroes from our local community. Send us a (non-returnable) picture of your nominee if possible, plus any other useful information (no more than two sides of A4 paper, also non-returnable).

You can download nomination forms via the link below.

Local businesses seeking to support the awards can phone Nigel Briggs on 01904 567168, or email nigel.briggs@ycp.co.uk