Yvonne Leech has been named North West Woman of the Year at the prestigious Fusion awards.

Yvonne was honoured for her work in helping to raise awareness of M.E and setting up a Bury/Bolton support group over 30 years ago.

The Fusion Awards, now in their seventh year aimed to reward people from all backgrounds and cultures for their contributions in helping to make the region a better place to live.

The event, held in Blackburn was hosted by ITV Central presenter Sam Ali Khan and attended by 37 finalists from across the region.

Yvonne accepted her award from Imran Mahmood, Partner at AMT Lawyers who sponsored the category.

Speaking on the night she said, “I am absolutely overwhelmed. It is lovely to feel that after all these years that my support group nominated me for these awards and I knew nothing about it. It was really big surprise to be just a finalist.”

“Thirty years ago my husband was diagnosed with ME and very little was known about the condition and I gathered a few people and we started having house meetings to held each other and find out more. It grown and grown and we have gone across the North West.”

Yvonne was the group leader for many years and this year, she was also involved in the development of an online training pack for the diagnosis and management of M.E, for use by GPs.