{"id":2717,"date":"2014-07-31T10:16:43","date_gmt":"2014-07-31T09:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bctaspire.org.uk\/?p=2717"},"modified":"2015-02-22T21:49:19","modified_gmt":"2015-02-22T21:49:19","slug":"paul-nominated-for-community-champion-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bctaspire.org.uk\/?p=2717","title":{"rendered":"Paul nominated for Community Champion Award!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Man who raised thousands for Billingham charity nominated for Community Champion award.\u00a0 Paul Burgum nominated by Ian Richardson, the founder of the Jo and Mya charity which he set up to help bereaved children and families.<\/p>\n

\"communitychampion2\"<\/a>
Ian Richardson and Paul Burgum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A man whose unstoppable spirit and winning smile endeared him to hundreds across Europe has had his efforts recognised.<\/p>\n

Paul Burgum raised thousands of pounds for the Jo and Mya charity by walking the entire length of Italy in just 42 days.<\/p>\n

He made numerous friends along the way, proudly representing his Teesside home.<\/p>\n

Now the charity founder Ian Richardson has nominated him as Champion Ambassador in the Gazette Community Champion awards<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Jo and Mya Fund was set up to help bereaved children and families by Billingham<\/span><\/span><\/a> dad Ian, following the loss of his wife and daughter who were killed in a car accident.<\/p>\n

The Champion Ambassador Award, sponsored by Castlegate Shopping Centre in Stockton, honours people who have done Teesside proud and have put the region on the map.<\/p>\n

In February, The Gazette reported how nothing could stop Paul from completing a tortuous 1,000km route over mountain, beach and road from Reggio Calabria on the southern tip of Italy to Monaco.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old, from Thornaby, set off on his fundraising charity walk on December 27, 2013 and completed the mammoth task despite a severe chest infection, developing painful blisters and becoming the victim of credit card fraud.<\/p>\n

Ian has been overwhelmed by the support Paul has shown for his charity. He said: \u201cI would like to nominate Paul Burgum for The Champion Ambassador Award. Paul has been an inspiration and a fine ambassador for everything Teesside during his numerous endeavours for the Jo and Mya Fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a normal man, not rich or famous, he doesn\u2019t have to do what he does, there\u2019s no agenda, he\u2019s just an honest, warm and big-hearted man.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe response Paul gets from everyone he meets is amazing, and has an infectious personality. He really is a true inspiration and I can\u2019t think of a better advert for Teesside.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m nominating Paul Burgum as The Champion Ambassador for Teesside.\u201d<\/p>\n

On completing his Italian ordeal, Paul paid tribute to Ian and the Jo and Mya Fund in a typically humble way.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI walk out of respect for Ian. The Jo and Mya fund really resonates with me, it\u2019s been an honour to walk in their memory – there can no greater cause than that of your family.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Article written by James Cain<\/strong> from the Evening Gazette<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Man who raised thousands for Billingham charity nominated for Community Champion award.\u00a0 Paul Burgum nominated by Ian Richardson, the founder of the Jo and Mya charity which he set up … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":2718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bct-aspire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bctaspire.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bctaspire.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bctaspire.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bctaspire.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bctaspire.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2717"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bctaspire.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2721,"href":"https:\/\/bctaspire.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717\/revisions\/2721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bctaspire.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bctaspire.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bctaspire.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bctaspire.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}