Last week we was delighted to learn that our Founder and Head Andy Baker is a finalist in this year’s Oxford Mail Oxfordshire Health and Care Awards.
Andy is in contention for the “Volunteer of the Year” Award and was nominated by Matthew Norris.
Read all about the 36 finalists
In his nomination, Matt wrote: “Andy, as the head of Play2Give, has been a tireless fundraiser for a range of medical organisations over the years, including Oxford Children’s Hospital, Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, Headway Oxfordshire, and many more. The fundraising that he has done has funded many important projects, such as hospital rooms, and made a real positive difference to people’s lives. He’s run countless events, including: charity balls, town fayres, stalls at a Christmas fair, cake sales, gift collections for the children’s hospital, corporate sponsorships and much more. According to the P2G website, he’s raised nearly £300,000 in cash and gifts.”
The Oxfordshire Health and Care Awards takes place as a virtual awards ceremony livestreamed on the Oxford Mail’s Facebook page from 7pm on May 21st when the winners across 12 categories, including Volunteer of the Year, will be announced.
As well as being the Founder and CEO of Play2Give Andy has been a Volunteer at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for seven years, and continues to do so: firstly in ultrasound radiology at the JR, Robin’s Ward in the Children’s Hospital and more recently as a Covid champion volunteer in the West Wing. Andy has been a tireless fundraiser for the Oxford Children’s Hospital and other healthcare related causes at the John Radcliffe since 2003 after beginning his fundraising crusade aged 14, 19 years ago, to say “thank you” back to the medical teams throughout treated and cared for him throughout his childhood after being born with a brain injury, and brain surgery aged 12 was the inspiration behind his fundraising crusade.
He has attended the Headway activity and rehabilitation centre in Kennington twice weekly since 2012 as part of his recovery and rehabilitation, as a service user. He started out as a marketing and events volunteer aged 23 for the specialist brain injury charity.
Since 2019 Andy is a proud Ambassador for the British Citizen Awards after being honoured as a BCAv Medallist in July 2017. He has also recently become an Ambassador for Includability and continues to be a positive role model advocating for many good causes locally.
Despite living with his brain injury by day including chronic fatigue, Andy never stops giving back in spades to the causes that mean so much to him, and tirelessly works hard all year round with our dedicated team of volunteers to support the local community.
Thank you to Matt for nominating Andy and our good luck to all the healthcare heroes nominated for May 21st.