A TIRELESS volunteer who helped ensure Christmas wasn’t washed away with a freak tidal surge last year is being honoured with a Teesside Heroes Award.

Pat Chambers from Billingham won a trophy and £1,000 from charity Middlesbrough and Teesside Philanthropic Foundation to give to a good cause of her choice.

“I'm a single parent and I work full-time, but I also volunteer a lot because I want the very best for my community and I like to feel I encourage and inspire other people to want to make a difference too,” she said.

Her altruistic endeavours around the town of Billingham include organising Christmas for the residents of Port Clarence and High Clarence, hamlets on the Stockton side of the Transporter Bridge that are isolated due to its limited transport links.

“The Clarences is a community that used to have four churches and now has none,” she said. “This is an opportunity to get Billingham residents down there and to take Christmas to the Clarences.”

She also set up a local branch of anti-drugs group DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), and a board director at The Five Lamps Organisation, which focuses on social and financial inclusion, social enterprise, employment and youth outreach services.

As well as being the event organiser for Billingham Carnival and Horticultural Show which includes Britain's Strongest Man this weekend, Ms Chambers edits the Billingham Community Newspaper.

She was nominated by the foundation chairman, Andy Preston, and presented with her accolades by its patrons Mark Smith of Billingham-based Stockton Machine Company and Claire Watson of chemical firm SABIC.

“I'm a firm believer that to help everyone feel part of one big community, we just need to help each other,” Ms Chambers added.