The Richard Hambro Award Winner 2011

The Hyndburn committee has been running since 1973 and was chaired by Barbara Donohue who was dedicated to fundraising for Macmillan, supporting her committee to raise over £137,000 for Macmillan in five years.

Sadly Barbara lost her fight to cancer, which left a huge void in both the committee's fundraising efforts and in the lives of all of its members. Susan Johnson realised that this very personal loss could have affected the fantastic work that Barbara had started, and has very determinedly and modestly taken over as ‘caretaker’ Chair person of the Hyndburn Committee.

Susan has become known locally as the ‘Macmillan Lady’ and is always available for anything Macmillan related. Dealing with the loss of somebody close is never easy, however Susan manages to do so by working hard to preserve Barbara’s memory and efforts for Macmillan, whilst always remaining steadfast, jovial and positive. She has also agreed to take the role of Area Chair in East Lancashire to try and improve the five local committees with her positive attitude, good connections and leadership skills.

She has also masterminded the new ‘Friends of Macmillan’ scheme which we are trialing in the East Lancashire area, which will hopefully encourage even more people to get involved and help with our fundraising efforts.

Despite still coming to terms with the loss of her very close friend she has made sure that the committee and its members are stronger than ever and by the end of the year will have raised well over £30,000.