Long-serving volunteer for Home-Start Blaby District, Oadby and Wigston, Edna Smith, was surprised when she was won an award for ‘Special Achievement’ at the National Lottery Awards.

The National Lottery Awards have recognised Edna for her years of service and for changing the lives of hundreds of families.

Edna national lottery awardsThe moment was broadcast along with a film paying tribute to Edna on a BBC One show the National Lottery Stars on Monday 21 September.

Eighty-year-old Edna is the longest serving home-visiting volunteer at Home-Start Blaby District, Oadby and Wigston, and is thought of as a surrogate mum by the many families she has helped.

Edna was visited by her hero Aled Jones in August and believed they were making a film to promote Home-Start and how National Lottery funding has benefited it. She was invited to The London Studios for the National Lottery Awards ceremony on Friday (11th) and host John Barrowman shocked her with the news she had won a Special Achievement Award.

The mum of four, grandmother to 10 and great-grandmother to two, said: “It was with mixed emotions that I accepted the award from the National Lottery - delighted, shocked, humble and very privileged.”

Rob Parkinson, Chief Executive of Home-Start UK said “Even among the incredible group of people that make up Home-Start’s volunteers Edna’s commitment to the families she has supported stands out as remarkable, and we are all delighted that she has been recognised for what she has achieved. Like all of our 15,000 home-visiting volunteers right across the UK, with her support and friendship for parents Edna continues to make an incredible difference to countless families.”

The National Lottery Awards are the annual celebration of the UK’s favourite Lottery funded projects. Local Home-Starts have received have received £8.5 million of National Lottery funding since 2005 through 95 grants from the BIG Lottery Fund, one of the distributors of National Lottery funding.