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Canalside Community Radio
This winner provides residents in North East Cheshire with a broad spectrum of popular music and serve all sectors of the community by keeping them up-to-date on forthcoming events and the latest news and issues affecting the area. They embrace the spirit of a caring sharing community, providing an opportunity for volunteers, students and local residents to gain access to radio training and media skills. One of the David Lewis college students who has serve disabilities has gain invaluable work experience there - learning presenting skills, increasing his communication and as a result has become more sociable and his confidence has increased. For a non profit organisation they have worked so hard to purchase and then install state-of-the-art equipment which helps as a stepping stone for anyone wishing to get into radio, long may this continue.

Halton Autisitic Family Support Group (HAFS)
This winner provides an invaluable service to parents and families of autistic children and young adults. Having a child with autism can make life very lonely and socially isolating. Our winners offer regular group meetings as well as day trips to places such as Chester Zoo. They also arrange a weekend away every year. On top of all this, they provide advice & support to parents with issues surrounding education, assessments. respite & support. This support extends to meeting with parents, offering a lifeline when parents have nowhere to turn for support with important issues. The dedication from the staff and volunteers make life much more enjoyable for children & young adults with autism, and their families.

Northern School of Asian and Oriental Cooking
Our judging panel were unanimous in their decision to recognise this winner. They have built a special cooker range for wheelchair users in her cooking school and they have fitted safety induction cookers for blind learners. The owner of the business regularly goes into special schools and teaches her cooking techniques to people with severe learning difficulties.

Congleton Disabled Access Group
This winner has been helping to improve the lives of disabled people for the past 8 years. This group of disabled volunteers, provide access solutions, access audits and giving disabled people a voice to challenge local, regional and national organizations. They attend meetings and lobby for better services and provision for disabled people. They launched a shopmobility scheme to provide loan of mobility equipment to use in the town centre so clients can access shops, businesses and leisure facilities and carry out activities of daily living in comfort. The group are a not for profit voluntary organization working towards becoming a charity.

Hannah Al -Tarabously
The way disability is portrayed in the press varies massively, when an article is written badly it can become a great cause of frustration and embarrassment. This winner has been highlighted for her sensitive and responsible handling of stories around mental health, in particular the Sticks and Stones campaign developed by the 5 Boroughs Partnership NHS Trust. Service users in Warrington have been made to feel more confident about speaking to their local newspaper, our winner actively asked for the opportunity to interview people with mental ill-health – respecting their status as Experts by Experience and giving them a public platform to address common misconceptions and stereotypes about illnesses such as Anorexia and Personality Disorder.

She was the first reporter from her news title to broach the often taboo subject of self-harm, giving a young service user the chance to talk about her recovery journey and to pose for a front cover photograph that unashamedly revealed her scars. The non-sensational approach she took to her interview with one service user who is recovering from Anorexia impressed the Association of Healthcare Communicators judging panel so much that the Trust received a nomination for Best Media Handling. Well tonight its time to recognise her positive action, the winner is Hannah Al -Tarabously from the Warrington Guardian.

Graham Barker - KPAC
This winner works tirelessly to improve the lives and services for disabled people and has been nominated for the invaluable work and service that he gives to the local community. Despite his own disability, he has built a successful social enterprise, which not only provides inclusive sport, leisure and training opportunities but also provides invaluable support and advice to many disabled people. He is committed to ensuring that disability remains high on the agenda, both locally and nationally. One of the many nominees said 'It takes a special kind of committed person to continually develop the services offered and maintain the professionalism to deliver them to such a high quality.

Mosaic Community Care Ltd
The nominators of this winner are professional foster carer's and look after children with complex needs. Over the last 18 months they have been involved with 2 children who's development is greatly impacted on by their social and play/leisure time activities. Both children's complex needs could easily socially isolate them. Unfortunately, most of the groups they tried to access for out of school activities, such as swimming groups, football clubs, Beavers and youth groups cater predominantly for mainstream young people. That was until they came across our winners. From the first time we discovered this organisation, till now, they have never ceased in their commitment to design, deliver and differentiate mainstream activities to facilitate access for all. Our children have now accessed farming groups, rock and river, sports groups, swimming group, pottery group, computer group and horse riding. Both children have significantly developed their social interaction and communication skills. They have grown in confidence and capability. Without exception, all the staff they have come in contact with have worked tirelessly with one simple goal, putting young people first and allowing them to achieve all they can.

Terry Wood and Cybaqua
The nominator of our next winner is Dave Thompson. Starting out in any new hobby or sport can be difficult, but as a disabled person with restricted physical ability finding instructors to teach Dave to scuba diving wasn't straight forward. Our winners hadn't taught a person with a severe disability before, but they did everything they could to enable Dave to dive. Together they learnt what could be achieved with a little improvisation, determination and encouragement. This has led to Dave undertaking a couple of try dives in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. On his return our winners agreed to attempt to take him through to PADI Open Water Referral. Once again, much of this was improvised, but always within the safety limits and lots of encouragement. This led to a return trip to Egypt where Dave (and his dive buddy Graham) completed the final part of the PADI Open Water course. With further support this also led to the PADI Advanced Open Water course in October 2010. This allows the guys to dive down to 30 metres! Our winners are perfect examples of showing a positive attitude to disabled people, seeing past disability and promoting self awareness of ability. As well as operating from an access retail store in Warrington, they operate from several local swimming pools, all have accessible facilities. In addition earlier this year our winners supported WDP's Scuba Diving Challenge 'Going the Extra Mile', supplying all of the equipment, physical support and advice on safety. In July, they once again stepped in to help at DAD, operating 'try dive sessions', offering the chance to dive to disabled people and other visitors to DAD. They really do deserve the recognition of a Positive Action Award.

No Secrets
Since they began in 2007 this winner has gone on from strength to strength. They support people in St Helens, Halton and Wigan struggling with self-injury through a network of peer support groups. They are now piloting a group in Wigan. They also provide self-injury specific training sessions to those working with people who self harm, or have self harmed in the past. The training is designed and delivered by members of the group who have personal experience of living with self harm. Their service is invaluable and all those working within the organisation are volunteers. Staff working in the field say that the work they are doing is fantastic, their passion for raising awareness is contagious and their honesty and openness about their own experiences with self harm is inspirational. They deserve huge recognition for all their hard work.

The A.LE.X Project - Macclesfield
This winner promotes wellbeing, independence, confidence, friendship, advice and support for people who have Parkinson's and their carers living in the Cheshire area. They operate a unique project that gives attendees a lot of pleasure and fills a gap for those who are isolated. It is run by volunteers from the Macclesfield Branch of Parkinson's UK, who also have to fundraise to keep it going and have been very successful with positive outcomes over the last eight years that it has been running.

Manchester Wheel
Its hard to believe that in 2011 there are still visitor attractions that don't offer full access to disabled people. This winner does, they offer spectacular views over Manchester, which they are keen to stress is one of the fastest changing landscapes in Europe. They also operate similar facilities in Liverpool, Dublin and elsewhere in the UK and beyond. All of the 42 capsules are wheelchair accessible, with staff members readily available, should assistance be required. Spare wheelchairs are also available on site to use.

Warrington Swimming Club
After speaking to parents these winners recognised that there were very few opportunities for disabled children to learn to swim in their area. This was due to mainstream clubs and swim schemes being unable to meet their individual needs. Our winners agreed to offer inclusive swimming sessions, which would provide a high teacher:swimmer ratio, with plans to integrate with other classes, wherever possible. The club currently has 9 disabled swimmers, all of whom have improved their skills and confidence (4 members of the group recently competed in the Novice race of the Club Championship Gala).

Stem by Stem Florist
The nominator of our next winner is deaf and says that "this employer deserves recognition providing a beacon of hope for me in very difficult and demanding circumstances. They see my deafness as a strength. The owner didn't understanding a lot about deafness when I first started working with her, and although she was extremely busy she took the time to explain to her customers about my needs. I listen very hard with my hearing aids but I sometimes misheard what the customers wanted, but Shirley was patient and not only encouraged me but helped me in the battle to overcoming people's ignorance". A little time goes a long way.