Alex Eades named Inspirational Woman of the Year 2017
Lorraine’s Inspirational Woman of the Year 2017 was yesterday awarded to Charlotte’s Bag founder Alex Eades.
“This is for my daughter and she was my best friend, so she was everything to me. So this is for her, thank you so much.” – Alex Eades
57-year-old Alex set up the charity Charlotte’s Bag in honour of her late daughter Charlotte Eades. Charlotte was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer, in 2015. She documented her journey on YouTube until she lost her battle at just 19 years of age in February 2016. Despite her tragic loss, Alex has raised enough money to fund research into this type of cancer for three years.
Christine Lampard, who has guest presented Lorraine and awarded the trophy, said: “Alex was incredibly emotional as we all were in the room. You could tell she was thinking about her daughter every tiny second that she was up on stage there and it was all for her.”
Speaking on the show today Alex told Lorraine Kelly:
“It was a very difficult speech, but I managed to do it. I think it will put the charity firmly on the map now…. We’re hoping now to be able to move forward… We’ve had an awful lot of offers of help which has been marvelous. We are going to make it work and it will be hopefully one of the big charities, eventually.”
Lorraine’s Inspirational Woman of the Year award is now in it’s seventh year and is a celebration of extraordinary women in our everyday lives. Working in conjunction with the Women of the Year Awards, each year our show calls for viewers to nominate women they think go over and beyond the call of duty, with the winner honoured at the prestigious Women of the Year Awards.
After receiving hundreds of nominations from friends and family the shortlist was put forward to our judging panel who selected three worthy finalists: Alex Eades, mental health campaigner Peyton Melling and The Halo Foundation’s Alia Jones.
This year the Lorraine judging panel was made up of Lorraine, Victoria Milligan, who is very much in the Women of the Year fold having worked closely with Lorraine in the past, lawyer Miriam Gonzalez Durantez and singer Katherine Jenkins.
