100 inspiring women of Norfolk: have we featured your heroine yet?

Rosie Laura Hodgson (Image: Archant)

Nominations for Norfolk's 100 most inspiring women have now closed but we are still featuring the women you have nominated each Saturday while the judging panel make up their minds.

Our sponsors, Norwich High School for Girls, BDO, Adnams, Birketts and Spire Norwich Hospital are currently making up their minds which of the 100 to pick.

The women chosen will then be invited to a special dinner at Brasteds on October 10 to celebrate their achievements and the contribution they make to Norfolk life.

If we have not featured your nominee in the paper yet, do let me know at liz.nice@archant.co.uk but rest assured that all nominations have been added to our list and will be properly considered by the panel.

Heather Edwards (Image: Archant)

Watch this space for the list of all the women nominated in the top 100 very soon.

This week's nominees are:

Ruth Pearson (Image: Archant)

Claire Laurence-Couzens

One Voice Glee

I would like to nominate a close friend, Claire Laurence-Couzens for this award. She launched her own choir groups around two years ago and since then her tireless work has enhanced the lives of many Norfolk adults and children. By founding One Voice Glee she has created nurturing, fun and social spaces for many to enjoy. So many of her choir members speak of how she has encouraged and inspired them, resulting in strong benefits to their mental health and confidence.Working closely with many local charities, she has given some children and adults their first chance to enjoy singing in front of an audience for the first time. To me, she is inspirational because of her resilience, talent and hardworking nature, which has changed the lives of so many of her members.

Nominated by Debra Leggett

Kimberley Myhill (Image: Archant)

Rosie Laura Hodgson

Wheelchair footballer

Rosie was born with Gorham Stouts Disease, an extremely unique rare disease and Rosie is the only person in the world with her form of it. When she was 9 years old she rolled off an inflatable in a shallow swimming pool where her pelvis collapsed and spine obtained crush fractures. This has since confined her to a wheelchair. Due to her condition progressing she has had to have multiple operations to help prolong her life and stabilise her condition. Rosie is also in constant pain with her condition and has to take 20+ tablets a day to keep her alive.

Now, Rosie has left university with a degree in photography, she has her sights set on becoming a teacher and is a very successful wheelchair football player! She has had trials for England, played at St George's Park in the FA Cup final four times (winning three of those times) and won many more league titles with her team. Next year Rosie and her team Aspire will be travelling to Geneva to compete in the Champions League tournament; last year Rosie and team placed fourth out of 10 selected teams in Europe, a massive achievement.

Me, my husband Paul and son Charlie are incredibly proud of Rosie and feel she deserves to be recognised for all her achievements thus far and more to come.

Nominated by: Tina Hodgson

Heather Edwards

Founder, Come Singing

Heather Edwards runs Come Singing groups in Norfolk for people living with dementia and their carers. Her passion to support people with dementia inspired her to create Music Mirrors - a simple, cost-free idea which captures and store people's positive memories in brief written words with links to sound or music. Music Mirrors are a life-enhancing way of working with someone living with dementia to create a resource which can help someone feel known and understood, give comfort, distract them from distress, spark reminiscence and build bridges of understanding between carers and cared-for. Heather has won the community champion of the year award at the Eastern Daily Press' Stars of Norfolk and Waveney Awards and has introduced the Music Mirrors idea to Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust. It is also being used in the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital's dementia support service, as well being taken up by the Health Innovation Network of South London. Zurich University has launched a four-year study into how Music Mirrors can help people, and it was short-listed for a national award in mental health innovation.

Nominated by: Richard Lain-Smith

Ruth Pearson

Women's Advocate, Academic & Activist

I would like to nominate Ruth Pearson.

Since the 1980s, Ruth has been a driving force behind many initiatives in Norfolk. she helped establish a Women's Studies Course leading to a Well-Women Clinic and the Women's Health Support Services Group; was involved in setting-up and running WEETU which pioneered careers advice services and micro credit for start-up enterprises.

She still works with the Women's Budget Group and ROSA (the UK Fund for Women/Girls). As a Development Academic: she pioneered UEA programmes on Gender Analysis in Development, worked with Oxfam, Plan-UK, DFLD, UNDP, The World Bank and Marie Stopes International. She walks her talk inspiring generations of women.

Nominated by: Caroline Bardell

Kimberley Myhill

Mental health advocate

I would like to nominate my best friend, Kimberly Myhill.

To me, she is possibly the most inspiring woman I know.

Kimberly has a long history of depression, which lead to an attempted suicide in 2016. I'm pleased to say that she now considers herself as someone who is recovered.

She now uses her mental health recovery to help others. Kimberly has, and continues to, share her story and helps to encourage those to speak out, change their outlook and end the stigma surrounding mental health conditions.

She has featured in news articles (the EDP being one), appeared on TV, created podcasts featuring Helen McDermott and she also runs a Facebook/Instagram page "Hourglass Mental Health".

The way she speaks out about mental health and the way she has turned things around and uses that to help and encourage others, are hugely inspirational - whether you're someone dealing with a mental health condition or you're a friend or a relative of someone living with a mental health condition.

She has helped me to have a greater level of understanding, look at things in a new way which I didn't see previously and inspires me to help others, talk freely and end the stigma.

She really is a remarkable young woman and I'm blessed to know her.

Nominated by: Filomena Sarcone