Judging the Ely Hero Awards 2026
Friday 11th September was the 9th Ely Hero Awards, held at The Maltings. I've been on the judging panel for eight years now, across pretty much every category, and it's never got any easier to sit in front of a shortlist of genuinely brilliant people and pick one.
This year's theme was "cocktails with a cause", and the room played along properly. Finery everywhere, tables dressed by Party Malarky Events with balloons and illuminated letters, Blueshed running the lighting and sound so the evening had a real sense of occasion from the moment you walked in. Jeremy Sallis hosted again, keeping eleven categories of finalists moving without ever letting the energy dip. Star Struck Theatre Group performed two numbers from Matilda in between. I love Matilda and that performance was as high octane as the real West End thing. Still humming "Revolting Children" now.
Judging is the part people ask me about most, and the honest answer is that the hardest bit is never the reading. It's that within a single category you can have people who've done genuinely amazing things in completely different ways, which makes comparing them a bit like comparing apples with oranges.
We start with the full set of nominee submissions, which we whittle down to a shortlist. From there, we meet each shortlisted nominee to find out more about them and the work they do. That's when I pull the actual criteria out of the category description and turn each one into a question I can put to every nominee on that shortlist, then score their answers against it. It's the only way I've found to keep the comparison fair when the people in front of me are so different.
If my scoring comes out level, or if I know one of the shortlisted finalists personally (in which case another judge always comes to that meeting with me), the decision goes to the full panel at our Final Judges Meeting before the big night, where we weigh it up together and agree on a winner. Nine years in, that's the one thing the system has taught me: it keeps my heartstrings out of a decision that needs to stay fair.
The evening built to THE Ely Hero 2026 award, introduced this year by His Majesty's Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, Julie Spence OBE. It went to Dr Zoe Hutchinson from St George's Medical Centre in Littleport, chosen from among the winners of every other category. That's the "hero of heroes" prize, so being picked from that field says something.
This year's charity partner was Arthur Rank Hospice, who support people across Cambridgeshire living with advancing serious illness and those needing end of life care. Between the raffle and the auction, with Martin Millard from Cheffins Fine Art doing a lot of the work getting the room to dig in, the night raised £4,000 for them.
None of it happens without the people behind it. Sponsors, judges, volunteers, suppliers, the local businesses who donate prizes without being asked twice. I judge because I want to keep being part of that, not because it's an easy way to spend a Friday evening (although it was fabulous!)
Roll on next year!
