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Peer takes top charity award
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| Lord Ashley (left) presents the lifetime achievement award to Lord Rix |
Lord Rix has scooped the top honour at the annual ePolitix.com Charity Champion Awards.
The Mencap president and veteran disabilities campaigner won the lifetime achievement award at a ceremony on Thursday evening.
Other winners included rising Tory star and shadow Cabinet member David Cameron; select committee chairmen Dr Ian Gibson and David Hinchliffe; outgoing MPs Hilton Dawson and Dr Jenny Tonge; environment champion Joan Walley; animal welfare champion Ian Cawsey; and most effective campaigning charity Macmillan Cancer Relief.
The annual awards celebrate the charitable work of MPs and peers. Nominated by voluntary organisations, winners are selected by a parliamentary poll across a range of categories.
Lord Rix said he was particularly happy to receive the lifetime achievement accolade first won by Lord Ashley last year.
"It is a great honour because my name was put forward by voluntary organisations." the peer said.
"It is a singular honour and I am delighted to be following in the footsteps of last year’s winner Jack Ashley."
Disability champion Cameron, the Conservatives' head of policy consultation, said MPs deserve more recognition of their charitable work.
"All MPs do great work for local charities and causes they are interested in," the Witney MP argued.
And Liberal Democrat Tonge, who won the international award, said the awards have helped push campaigning issues up the agenda.
"It is because of awards like this that international development has become such an important issue," the Richmond Park MP said.
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