ONE hundred St Helens heroes have been recognised for going above and beyond during the pandemic.

Charity Tunza's Pride put a call out for nominations to honour key workers and others in its 'Hero on Our Street' scheme.

Over Easter, the children's charity had asked for nominations to recognise little ones who had shown kindness during the lockdown.

Based on that idea, the scheme sought to recognise 100 heroes in the town for their efforts.

"I wanted to do something as a spin off of that," said Tunza founder Ian Smith.

"The further into lockdown we go, the more relevant it got for the frontline staff and key workers.

"It was important that it was St Helens people who were recognised.

"The main think a lot of them said was 'I'm just doing my normal job' but it is because they've been doing their normal job they have been recognised."

The project benefitted from a £5,000 grant from Merseyside Community Foundation's LCR Cares fund.

Ian went round delivering a 'Hero Pack' of fresh food items and sweets to those who had been chosen.

Frontline healthcare staff, those who care in the community, school caretakers, welfare officers, a worker in the payments department at DWP and more were among those who received a pack.

"It's our way of recognising the key workers and the frontline workers who are doing their normal job very well," he added.

"The people who were nominating spoke to these people on a regular basis and realised they were stressed and just getting on with it.

"With the LCR Cares Fund, without them putting their hands in their pockets we couldn't have done it.

"We bought a list of items and the money we spent has been for St Helens businesses.

"I would like to thank everyone behind the scenes at Tunza who have rallied round. It has been a great process to visit the people who I had bene reading about for a couple of weeks."