Bal Claire - November winner
Bal’s father settled in the UK in 1951, and, uncertain whether to stay in this country he wanted to ensure that his family in India were supported. Together with others who had settled in Coventry from the same village they started to pool any spare money to put towards projects in India.
Bal has inherited this altruistic trait and on a much greater scale. With others spread across the world he has been instrumental in setting up charitable events which benefit the village and help connect the wider community. Through his efforts funds have been raised to build a school, Gurdwara and they are now hoping to provide the village with a sewerage system.
In the UK, Bal has helped raise money for a variety of charities through several events. These involved sky diving, abseiling, walking up the 900 steps to the top of the BT tower and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, this event raising £16,000 for Cancer Research UK. A further £89,000 was raised for Childline when a group of employees from his workplace, BT, were set a challenge of a talent development scheme. This entailed finding as many ideas as possible in 24 hours to raise as much money as possible for charity.
Bal has invested an enormous amount of time raising large amounts of money for a variety of charities and is truly a deserving award winner.