THERE was individual and collective recognition for the superb work being done by Braintree Town Football Club’s community charity organisation - Community Iron - at the Active Braintree Sports Awards.

They were named as winners in the Physical Activity Project of the Year category at a gala ceremony at Braintree Arts Theatre.

Community Iron run between 500 and 600 events each year, including badminton and walking football sessions, helping to get people of all ages more active and trustee Alan Stuckey said it was nice to be honoured for the work they do.

He said: “This award is recognition of the way that Community Iron has grown in the last four years from a very small offshoot of running an education programme to getting much more involved in the wider community.

“Our mission is to encourage all people to participate and be interested in active sport and wellness.

“There is a lot of work going on in schools as well as at the Discovery Centre; we have badminton for older people, walking football and so on – there’s a really wide range of sporting activities.

“You have to pay tribute to Mark (Sansom) in taking all these initiatives and making them run and he has been backed by our small group of trustees, who find the money to allow all this to go on.

“It has been a very successful four years.

“We’ve gone from very few events to five to six hundred events a year now.”

The award was also in recognition of Community Iron’s work in organising and running the the first Jacob Jones Family Fun Day this year, which was a way to get people active and at the same time raise money in the memory of a brave young man who sadly lost his fight with cancer in December 2017.

And his involvement in spearheading that project and a personal effort to change his lifestyle to improve his own fitness on the back of working with Jacob Jones and his family earned Community Iron’s head of operations, Mark Sansom, the Active Essex One in a Million award on the night.

Sansom explained how he had been inspired by Jacob’s battle against his illness and then working with other poorly children to lose seven stone in weight through having a healthier lifestyle and he is now target helping even more young people through Community Iron’s work.

He said: “Seeing kids going through what they are, you realise how important your health is.

“It has inspired me to do even more because you see kids in hospitals going through things that they shouldn’t be going through.

“It has given me a real kick up the backside to push it on further.

“We’re raising money through Community Iron and I’m in the process of contacting Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford to see if we can go in to do something in their children’s ward.

“We just want to help give the kids another focus to help them in what they are going through.

“I certainly never thought I’d win the One in a Million award because that’s not the way I see myself; I just do what I do because I want to see happiness on other people’s faces.

“I don’t put myself up there, but through Community Iron, it’s just about helping as many people as we can and letting people realise the opportunities they have. To be recognised for that is huge and we’ll strive to make it even bigger next year.”

Sansom added: “I would like to thank an amazing team that I work with on a daily basis, they are what makes Community Iron such an enjoyable project to be a part of; we all believe in the same things and want to help a change.

“But again, we must not lose sight of our wider audience and I cannot thank the people of the Braintree District enough for their support in our project.

“On a personal note, I would like to thank everyone involved in the selection of these awards and also the trustees for their support and belief in me as I continue to grow the Community Iron story.”