Local MP Mike Penning joined families with disabled children to celebrate the amazing things families do when caring for a disabled child at Contact’s awards ceremony on Monday 8th July 2019.

The awards ceremony organised by Contact - the charity that supports families with disabled children – was held at Members’ Dining Room at the Palace of Westminster at the request of Mike Penning MP, and was co-hosted by BBC Radio 4’s Jane Garvey.

At the event Sir Mike Penning MP met parents from his constituency, who are part of the Save Nascot Lawn campaign, runners up in the Parent Power category of Contact’s awards which recognises parents who have campaigned together to make life better for disabled children in their community.

Sir Mike Penning MP said: “I’m was delighted to host Contact’s Together at 40 Awards to celebrate the wonderful achievements of families with disabled children. It has been an extremely moving and exciting afternoon and I want to applaud all the families with disabled children at Contact’s Together at 40 awards ceremony. It’s important to remember that families with disabled children give back to our community and economy in so many different ways and it was fantastic to be able to celebrate this.”

Contact’s Awards were attended by more than 100 family members and parliamentarians. Government Minister for Children and Families, Nadhim Zahawi MP, also attended the event to present several Awards.

Amanda Batten, CEO at Contact said: “It’s wonderful to be able to celebrate all the positives that come along with being a family with a disabled child this afternoon.

“At Contact we are all about families and, because of the nature of the services we offer, we naturally hear a lot about when things go wrong for families – struggling to get the right services and support for their child, public attitudes to disability or pressure on relationships for instance. We established our unique awards to recognise when things go right too. We were overwhelmed by the 500 nominations we received and the inspiring stories families told us. Well done to all our finalists - they are all champions in our eyes!”

There were 7 award categories in Contact’s awards:

· Parent Carer Award to recognise the amazing things parent carers do to ensure their disabled children can take part in everyday life.

· Proudest Moment Award recognising the challenges disabled children have overcome that fill their parent carers with pride and make them smile.

· Sibling Award celebrating the often unseen but great things siblings do for their disabled brothers and sisters (sponsored by Fidelity International).

· Grandparent Award focusing on all the wonderful, everyday things grandparents do.

· Parent Power Award for individual parents or local parent groups who have campaigned to make life better for families with disabled children.