I am absolutely over the moon to find out that I’ve been nominated for a “Significant Achievement” award in the Wonderful Worcestershire 2018 awards in recognition for my work locally and regionally in fundraising and awareness raising. This is a huge surprise and I’m so thrilled to be a nominee in this category alongside some of those who I admire greatly in Worcestershire who have done great work in the County in their fields, and I am proud to represent Worcestershire in these awards.

Since 2012 I have been through significant grief, loss and trauma following a long string of close family bereavements which began with the loss of my only son Francesco “Frankie” Enrico Ventura in November 2013 when he was born sleeping, but I decided to turned these tragedies into positives by raising over £10,000 to improve the delivery suite rooms at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital through “Frankie’s Legacy”, blogging and writing to raise awareness of stillbirth and early pregnancy loss on www.frankieslegacy.co.uk and campaigning to change the road layout at Whittington Roundabout in Worcester near junction 7 of the M5. I also founded the Worcester Traffic Forum on Facebook in response to the growing problem of traffic and roadworks in the city, and I also help others who have been affected by grief, loss and trauma through my support group “Everlasting Footprints”.

A voting system is now in place until Thursday 15 February, so to vote for me or for any of the other nominees visit http://wonderfulworcestershirewomen.co.uk/nominee/lisa-ventura/.  There is a special awards ceremony in April where the finalists will find out if we are winners in our categories.

For more information about the awards please visit www.wonderfulworcestershirewomen.co.uk.