A handful of famous faces and inspirational figures were honoured at the first-ever Gaydio Pride Awards in Manchester last Friday.
Greater Manchester‘s thriving LGBTQ+ scene shone brighter than ever before as the inaugural Gaydio Pride Awards were held in our city last Friday night to celebrate the extraordinary efforts to bring Pride to every corner of the UK.
The annual awards ceremony are all about honouring the LGBTQ+ community members and allies making the biggest impacts nationwide.
Awards were handed out at the glamorous ceremony held at Manchester’s Hilton Hotel, which was hosted by hosted by Gaydio’s breakfast show presenters Paris and Dave, while performances came from chart-topping artist Raye, a set from dance-legend Sigala, and a show-stopping performance from Danny Beard, the winner of Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK Season 4.
When it comes to the winners, so many inspirational names and organisations were honoured and quite-rightly celebrated on the night.
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The first-ever Gaydio Pride Awards took place on Friday 10 February in Manchester / Credit: Supplied
Trans Pride Brighton took home the Grassroots Pride of The Year award as the longest-running and first-ever Trans Pride event, and there was a joint award for Major Pride of the Year with Manchester Pride, Birmingham Pride, Brighton + Hove Pride, and Pride in London – with all four major prides coming together to condemn the world cup in Qatar and the human rights abuse against LGBTQ+ people.
Joel Mordi, who is organiser of the first pride event in Nigeria, was the winner of the Volunteer of the Year award having volunteered with a myriad of nonprofits including UK Black Pride, Crisis UK, and National Student Pride.
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Famous faces and inspirational figures were honoured at the ceremony / Credit: Supplied
Trans Radio UK Football Club were honoured with the LGBTQ+ Club or Sports Team of the Year award for providing a space for trans people to play football in a safe way, without having to be subjected to questioning, harassment and doubt, while Great British Bake Off finalist, Janusz Domagala, was awarded LGBTQ+ Champion award for using his platform to support and promote LGBTQ+ in his bakes and his attire, as well as being the first to use the word transgender on the show.
Filthy Gorgeous, the weekly student night held at The Brewers in Manchester, picked up the award for Venue or Event of the Year as the favourite hit night where people in the LGBTQ+ community can come together safely and dance the night away.
Chart topper Raye, and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK winner Danny Beard were two of the night’s performers / Credit: Supplied
Charity of the Year was awarded to George House Trust to recognise all the work the organisation been doing around HIV and fighting the stigma by providing support, advice, and advocacy services to improve health outcomes for those affected since 1985.
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Revered screenwriter, Russell T Davies, is one of the charity’s ambassadors, and he was proud to attend the ceremony last Friday.
One of the famous names honoured on the night was up-and-coming black lesbian musician, Cat Burns, who has had great success with back-to-back hits ‘Go’ and ‘People Pleaser’, and took home the award for Music Artist of the Year.
Last but not least, the Lifetime Contribution award went to Peter Tatchell – a human rights campaigner who was arrested in Qatar for promoting the dangers for LGBTQ+ people throughout the 2022 World Cup.
Sigala also provided a DJ set on the night / Credit: Supplied
“The inaugural Gaydio Pride Awards took place to recognise the fantastic achievements of our community and LGBTQ+ people across the UK,” Gaydio’s Director, Ian Wallace, commented after the ceremony happened to huge success.
“It’s important to offer an event, open to the public, that is able to showcase everything from the smallest of Pride festivals, to trailblazing queer music artists.
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“Bring on 2024.”
Featured Image – Supplied
News
NHS to begin offering new one-minute jab to women with ‘aggressive’ form of cancer
Emily Sergeant
The NHS is set to begin offering new immunotherapy for hundreds of women with aggressive cervical cancer across the country.
Pembrolizumab – which experts have described as being able to ‘take the handbrake off’ the body’s immune system to target cancer – will now be presented as a new treatment option for women in England with locally-advanced cervical cancer, which means the cancer has grown beyond the cervix to regions such as the pelvic wall, but not yet spread further around the body.
Trials found that adding pembrolizumab to standard chemoradiotherapy helped keep cancer ‘at bay’ for longer, and improved survival rates overall.
Two years after starting the treatment, nearly seven in 10 patients (68%) were still living without their cancer progressing, compared with 57% for those receiving chemoradiotherapy alone, according to NHS figures.
The trial also found that 82.6% of patients were still alive three years after treatment with pembrolizumab and chemoradiotherapy, compared with 74.8% with chemoradiotherapy alone.
Hundreds of women with aggressive cervical cancer are to be offered a new immunotherapy treatment.
It marks one of the biggest improvements in treatment for the disease in years, and could help more women survive and stay cancer-free in the long term.
The drug is either given every three or siz weeks via an infusion, or as a ‘one-minute’ injection, alongside chemoradiotherapy.
The NHS estimates around 550 patients in England will be eligible for the treatment – which has been approved this week by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) – over the next two years.
Patients will now receive fast-tracked access, funded by NHS England’s Cancer Drugs Fund.
“This is great news for women facing a diagnosis of aggressive cervical cancer, and represents one of the biggest improvements in treatment for this disease in recent years,” commented Professor Peter Johnson, who is the NHS National Clinical Director for Cancer.
“Combining this immunotherapy with existing treatment has had very positive effect for patients in trials, helping the body’s immune system to target cancer more effectively.
“We’re delighted it will be available for patients on the NHS as it could help hundreds more women survive and stay cancer-free in the long-term.”
Featured Image – NappyStudio (via Unsplash)
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Andy Burnham wants to bring the ‘Greater Manchester way’ to Westminster
Emily Sergeant
Andy Burnham has set out his vision for the country if he is to become Prime Minister.
In case you need brining up to speed first, after it was announced earlier this month that Andy Burnham had clinched the victory in the crucial Makerfield by-election, winning 24,927 votes (54.8% vote share) and a majority of 9,231, he then went onto announce his intention to run for Labour Party leader, and therefore Prime Minister, after Keir Starmer confirmed he would be stepping down.
And this week, Mr Burnham has now delivered his first speech as part of his ongoing campaign, addressing how he plans to give the country a ‘new direction’.
Burnham says that he wants to bring the ‘Greater Manchester way’ to Westminster.
A lot has been discussed and reported on when it comes to Burnham’s intentions to create a so-called Number 10 North here in Manchester, but what exactly does it mean to take the ‘Greater Manchester way’ to the capital?
“The Greater Manchester way is based on strong partnership between all sectors: public, private, community, voluntary, academic, faith, and our trade unions,” Burnham said in his speech.
He continued: “When I started as Mayor in 2017, we set about building a new approach, a new politics based on the exact opposite of the Westminster approach.
“Place-first, not party-first. Problem-solving, not point-scoring. Long-term, not short-term.
“A decade on, it’s incredible how much we’ve been able to achieve by working together instead of fighting against one another.”
Burnham said he feels the truth is that the country spends ‘too much time arguing and not enough time doing’ and that for Britain to get back where it ‘should be’, his Government would ask everyone to ‘face the same way’ and then ‘pull in that same direction together’.
He declared that No 10 North will be the ‘nerve centre’ for a rewired Britain.
“It will be the conduit through which we redistribute power and resources across the UK,” he concluded. “It will coordinate all parts of Government, at national and local level, to agree a long-term economic strategy and help all places set new growth ambitions.”
Emily Sergeant -
13th February 2023 
