PRIDE OF ST HELENS AWARDS: The Pride of St Helens Award nominees

Here are our shortlisted nominees for the Pride of St Helens Award.

Ahead of the awards this Friday, we will be sharing profiles on each category of the awards highlighting each of the nominees.

Kristian Woolf 

Kristian (Image: Kristian)

KRISTIAN Woolf’s three years at Saints delivered three Super League titles, a League Leaders’ Shield and a first Challenge Cup trophy after a 13 break.

The 47-year-old Queenslander has evolved the champion team he inherited into one with a harder edge and he has laid the groundwork for his successor.

A steely defence has been key – and that paved the way for the way Saints started the 2022 campaign.

And then there are the values that have been inculcated into the set up; the collective “all for one and one for all” togetherness, the fighting spirit that has come to the fore this term given the adversity they have faced with injury.

This year Saints wrapped up the League Leaders Shield and the Super League title despite losing at various times scrum half Lewis Dodd, wing Regan Grace, centre Mark Percival, Will Hopoate, Tommy Makinson and Alex Walmsley.

Despite losing players of that calibre there was never any excuses not to perform – and Saints were better for it.

And so it is no wonder that for the past three years there has been significant mutual affection between coach, players, fans and the town that the Woolf family have made home.

Jacqui Abbott

Jacqui Abbott (Image: Jacqui Abbott)

SINGING in front of Paul Heaton almost 30 years ago, Jacqui Abbott never could have imagined how this moment would change the course of her life.

Jacqui’s rendition of a Carpenters song, at a party near Taylor Park, led to Paul later searching for her to audition as the vocalist for the Beautiful South.

Despite not setting out to be a singer, Jacqui’s life was transformed as she went from working on a fruit and veg stall in Church Square to recording an album and playing live to thousands of fans.

After touring the world, recording multiple studio albums and even taking a ten-year hiatus from music, Jacqui played her first gig in St Helens in July, in front of a record-breaking 21,500 people at the Totally Wicked Stadium.

With Jacqui’s Saints-mad family and friends coming down to watch her and Paul perform, the mum-of-two said she was “honoured” to play at such a momentous occasion.

Despite the torrential that came down, Jacqui’s homecoming was an amazing celebration and showed that St Helens has the capacity to host large-scale events and attract big musical names to the town.

St Helens Mind

St Helens Mind (Image: St Helens Mind)

St HELENS Mind’s dedicated staff and volunteers had to radically change their services to ensure they gave their best support to the wider community during the height of the Covid pandemic and its aftermath.
With very limited funds and the lack of opportunity to community fundraise, they brought together a wealth of knowledge and experience instead.
They developed initiatives aimed at supporting people who would not normally access their services. 
As Covid hit in 2020, St Helens Mind started experiencing calls and emails from those who need support and from people who are concerned about someone who is alone.
Straight away they set up the ‘Check In and Chat’ service to link individuals with a volunteer to help alleviate the loneliness and isolation being experienced by so many. 
A telephone counselling service also began and a whole new way of working was developed, with the team under pressure from remote working and still maintaining contact with their members. 
With St Helens Mind’s regular services, based on social activity and face-to-face befriending, having to be paused during that period, the charity did their best to still make a difference to people’s lives who need it.
Their nomination described the St Helens Mind team as “truly amazing”.