The late Dianne Oxberry, who tragically died in 2019 just 10 days after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer, is to be honoured with a new award at the This Is Manchester Awards.
The fifth annual awards, which celebrates local businesses and individuals from across Greater Manchester, will take place this November, with The Manc as proud media partners.
And this year, a new award has been created in honour of the broadcaster and weather presenter, with the full support of Dianne’s family.
The This is Manchester Awards (TIMA) announced the Dianne Oxberry Special Impact Award this week, which will recognise an individual who has faced adversity and won and, by doing so, has left a lasting legacy across the region.
Dianne’s widower Ian Hindle attended a special event to announce the new award, alongside TIMA hosts Jenny Powell and Scott Thomas.
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One of her last-ever presenting jobs was at the inaugural TIMA awards in November 2018, prompting the event’s organisers to reach out to her family and ask to create a long-term legacy in honour of her memory.
Jenny Powell and Scott Thomas. Credit: Supplied
The new award announcement coincides with the first anniversary of the launch of Dianne Oxberry Trust’s ‘Spread the W.O.R.D’ campaign, which aims to raise awareness of some of the main symptoms of ovarian cancer.
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Dianne’s husband Ian Hindle commented on behalf of the Trust: “Our goal is to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of this disease, to help improve speed of diagnosis, and hopefully lead to improved outcomes so more families have more time together than we had with Dianne.
“Our community is the key to this. We are normal people, members of the North West community, reaching out to others in the area. We can only shout loudly with the support of people in the North West – local people helping local people.
“The community in this region is amazing at pulling together and doing just that…and we can’t thank our supporters enough for helping us spread the word, and – most importantly – save lives.
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A new award has been created to honour the late Dianne Oxberry. Credit: BBC
“Our values align perfectly with that of the This is Manchester Awards and we were touched that they wanted to honour Dianne in this way.”
TIMA founder Ziara Siddique said: “We were incredibly fortunate to have Dianne Oxberry present the very first awards alongside Roger Johnson back in 2018.
“Her passion for the city and, for the spirit of the awards was undeniable – now in our fifth year and established as an annual legacy event, the time feels right to recognise that early support and we’ve been incredibly humbled by the reaction we’ve received from her family and close friends in helping us shape this award.”
Nominations across the 15 highly-contested categories are set to open next week.
The This is Manchester Awards will take place on 9 November at Lancashire Cricket Club – a new location chosen to accommodate the greater number of guests.
Featured image: Supplied
Manchester
Manchester City youngster Nico O’Reilly earns surprise England call-up
Danny Jones
Manchester City youngster Nico O’Reilly has earned himself a surprise England call-up for this upcoming international break.
The impressive young utility player, who has been deployed as both a defender and a midfielder under Pep Guardiola, has proved to be a popular member of the squad among Man City fans.
A north Manchester-born academy product, O’Reilly has represented the Three Lions throughout various age groups across the youth level, but this England camp will be his first senior call-up.
Yet another local lad flying the flag for 0161 in the national team.
The 20-year-old arrived at St George’s Park on Monday afternoon along with a number of ther young English stars such as Myles Lewis-Skelly, Elliot Anderson, Jarrel Quansash, who have recently been integrated by national team boss, Thomas Tuchel.
O’Reilly has been added to the squad following the withdrawal of fellow defender Reece James, with the Chelsea fullback having picked up yet another injury in the Premier League.
As detailed by England Football: “The Chelsea captain sustained an injury playing for his club over the weekend and has been ruled out of England’s October internationals following medical assessments.”
With O’Reilly able to play not only in defence but on either flank, as he has already done in Guardiola’s ever-fluid system, the versatile Man City rotation player isn’t just looking more and more like a first-team star but could soon be a capped England international.
Looking forward to seeing more of this on the big stage:
As you can see, Pep has continued to deploy him in even the biggest of games, and it seems as though he’s clearly impressed Tuchel enough to make him first in the queue to replace James.
Rightly so, we’d hasten to add; it remains to be seen whether or not he will feature in the two upcoming fixtures against Wales and Latvia.
Commenting on the moment of recognition, City expressed their pride and congratulations, insisting that the decision “also helps further cement what has been a quite magnificent start to the season for the 20-year-old” in which he’s already made nine first-team appearances across all competitions.
That now makes the number of Greater Manchester-born/based players in the current England squad to four (just one of those being from Man United in Barcelona loanee Marcus Rashford) – an admittedly smaller number than we’ve come to expect over the years.
Nico O’Reilly signed a fresh new deal at Manchester City just last month.
Electronic icons Kraftwerk announce first Manchester gig since 2017
Danny Jones
Pioneering German band Kraftwerk have announced their first UK tour since 2017, with fans having to wait almost a decade for another Manchester gig.
Thankfully, they’ll be heading back down the Autobahn and across the channel for a return to our shores soon enough with a long-awaited list of British and Irish live dates.
Kraftwerk remains one of the most groundbreaking groups in the electronic scene to this day, having paved the way for generations of new artists to keep experimenting with the genre in the 50+ years since their formation.
Heading back to Manchester early next year, die-hards will no doubt snap these tickets faster than you can say ‘Das Model’.
For anyone unaware of these veritable legends of electronica and the world of alternative/Euro-synth pop, Kraftwerk formed all the way back in 1970 and went on to shape the modern music industry, bridging the gap between music and the digital age.
Best known for tracks like ‘Computer Love’, ‘The Robots’, ‘Pocket Calculator’ and the aforementioned on named after the national motorway network, they spearheaded futurism in the musical landscape from the outset.
It seems only fitting, therefore, that their upcoming highly anticipated return to the UK comes as part of their ‘Multimedia’ tour.
While they have played a number of live shows all over the globe this year, including an extensive run in the US, next spring will be our domestic visit from Kraftwerk in nine long years.
Credit: Press shot (supplied)
You can see the full list of UK and Ireland tour dates – including a handful of Northern gigs – down below:
Spanning a total of 15 UK dates, as you can see, there will also be tickets to see Kraftwerk nearby in the likes of Liverpool and with our mates over in Sheffield.
Kraftwerk legend Ralf Hütter famously played a set inside our city’s velodrome at the National Cycling Centre for Manchester International Festival (MIF) back in 2009, and has collaborated with the event on multiple ocassions.
In fact, that very performance was seen as a turning point for MIF, so the Manc Kraftwerk connection speaks for itself; O2 members can obviously get pre-sale, but general admission tickets go live from 9am this Friday, 10 October.