A woman from Castleford has been shortlisted for a Pride of Britain Award for her fundraising efforts

During this time, she also delivered pizzas to doctors and nurses as a way of saying thank you for their service, as well as raising money to supply local hospitals with fundamental equipment.

Out of thousands of nominations, Marie has been shortlisted along with four others in the region for ‘Fundraiser of the Year', an award that commends special individuals for their hard work in their communities, making the world a better place.

Marie said: “When my Nanna was diagnosed with COVID 19, my whole world fell apart, I thought I'd lost her, my Nanna is my hero.

“I heard the hospitals were struggling for toiletries so this drove me to help out.

“The response I got with donations was overwhelming family friends and people that I didn't even know”

“I turned a bad situation, for myself and our community, into a good one and it pulled us all together, which then drove me to help out even further by doing fundraising activities, like bike rides, while delivering the parcels too.

“Since the restrictions have been lifted, I've been nominated for the Community Hero of Castleford and now the Pride of Britain - I'm so honoured I've been nominated for these awards and so humble to everyone that helped me in achieving what I have.”

After her Nanna made a swift recovery from COVID, Marie carried on her charitable acts throughout the community for the remainder of lockdown, after realising how much care homes and key workers were struggling.

Her journey to bring her community together through kindness saw Marie collect donations, providing toiletries, puzzle books to around 3000 patients across hospitals and care homes in the district.

She delivered free, cooked pizzas and food packs to key workers and delivered food parcels to the vulnerable and has also raised over £3000 by taking part in fundraising activities.

The winner of the award is to be announced on Thursday October 2.