THREE inspirational women were awarded at a glittering lunch featuring guest speaker Olympic swimmer Sha-rron Davies.

Nine finalists and 300 guests gathered for the prestigious Worcestershire Women of the Year awards at Few Marquees, Hanbury.

It had been a record year for nominations which raised £25,000 for St Richard’s Hos-pice, based at Wildwood Drive.

Hannah Edwards, from Worcester, said she was over the moon to be given the Harrison Clark Rickerbys Business Award for her achievements in investment management for BRI Management and her charitable work in the county.

“It is a great honour to be part of such a wonderful bi-annual event that takes huge efforts by all those involved.

“St Richard’s needs our support wherever possible and Worcestershire Women of the Year is a great way of raising funds from the various events held.

“I must pay tribute both to my excellent fellow finalists and those involved in the voluntary and achievement awards.“ Also taking home an award from the afternoon was Jacquelyn Maciejewski from Worcester.

She scooped the St Mary’s Worcester achievement aw-ard for setting up a ground-breaking service for heart failure patients in the county.

The nurse was diagnosed with cancer in 2006 and since her recovery has raised funds for cancer charities and supports cancer patients.

Isobel Dale’s work as chairman of Kemp Hospice saw her land the voluntary award sponsored by Peplow Jewellers.

Andrea Palmer, awards’ chairman, said: “I’m delighted to be involved in an awards scheme that publicly recognises those unsung heroines of the county who make such important contributions to their communities.

“This was a truly Worcestershire event with women from all parts of the county nominated for the awards.

“The judging panel had some extremely difficult decisions to make with the very high standard of our finalists.”

The finalists included Nic-ole Harris and Bridget Lewis for the voluntary award, Anna Madden and Emma Heathcote-James for the business award and Jean Wilson and Fiona Harris for the Achievement award.

For more information, visit strichards.org.uk.