A Community First Responder was also unanimously voted by the judges as the winner of the 2019 Community Hero Awards held at Harbour Lights fish and chip restaurant in Falmouth on Monday.

It was an evening of warmth, celebration, congratulations and top-notch fish and chips, and the well-deserved winner John Brooks took home a beautiful locally sculpted trophy, £500 and the novelty of free fish and chips for a whole year.

John said: “I am incredibly humbled to receive this award and want to send a big thank you to Harbour Lights as well as my utterly dedicated team of Community First Responders.

"Between us all, we do somewhere around 1,600 hours a year and rest assured I will be sharing the fish and chips with them all. The money will be going towards new equipment that we can use to make sure the community of Falmouth is taken care of in the best possible way. Again, many thanks to Harbour Lights for arranging this great evening – we had such a great time!”

Harbour Lights created award in 2017 to profile those that deserve recognition for their sheer dedication and hard work towards a good cause or continued support to the general greater good of Falmouth and the surrounding villages.

The appeal for nominees started just before Christmas 2018 and the public had just under a month to nominate someone they felt was deserving of this year’s award.

The ceremony was led by Falmouth’s Town Manager, Richard Gates.

The decision was made upon hearing of John’s unwavering dedication to his community and over the past year he has devoted more than 600 unpaid hours to treating and caring for 122 patients in Falmouth. Responding day and night, John has volunteered for six years and he is often the first link in the chain of a person’s survival.

The runners up included Kirsty Edwards and Michelle Bray who both received £100 and a trophy. In addition, the Student Community Wardens from Falmouth and Exeter universities received special recognition for their work in the community and were awarded £100 and a certificate.

Kirsty Edwards, the founding member of Plastic Free Falmouth, has put in countless hours creating awareness of plastic pollution and how it affects the special coastal environment in the town.

Through arranging beach cleans, training sessions, utilising her strong social media presence, campaigning during the town’s festivals as well as engaging with the business community directly, there was no doubt from the panel that she was well deserving of a trophy.

Michelle Bray was nominated for her hard work as a manager at Tanya’s Courage Trust charity shop. Working tirelessly in its shop in Penryn she is always cheerful, helpful and supportive of the customers and volunteers and the work that she puts in behind the scenes for the charity is humbling.

As part of her continual fundraising efforts, she has skydived, run the London Marathon and organised a well-attended Christmas Fayre.

Michelle is also a key person behind the legendary fundraising success ‘Pink Wig’, which consists of hundreds of women marching through Falmouth town to raise money for breast cancer research.

The Student Community Wardens of Falmouth and Exeter universities started out as a project with a remit of creating greater community cohesion, but the six students have gone above and beyond to build collaborative relationships between students and the local community.

Their work includes voluntary gardening for elderly residents, assisting disabled students, creating campaigns such as ‘Put a lid on it’ to reduce waste management and coordinating book sales to raise funds for charity.

Owner of Harbour Lights, Pete Fraser, said: “We love celebrating the fantastic community we are part of and big congratulations to John Brooks at Community First Responders for taking the top award this year.

"Everyone at Harbour Lights feels very much part of the town and thrives on meeting interesting, loyal and amazing inspirational people every day over the universal love of fish and chips. We’re all looking forward to repeating this occasion next year. Big thanks to everyone involved.”