Staff and residents at Harper Fields care home in Balsall Common are celebrating because their wonderful colleague, Amy Melia, has been named Foundation Champion for the Midlands and North West division in the Barchester Care Awards 2025.
The Barchester Charitable Foundation supports older people and other adults living with a disability or mental health condition by helping them to connect or re-connect with others in their local communities. The Foundation celebrate the staff who go the extra mile for the benefit of the 13,500 residents living in Barchester’s 267 care homes and private hospitals across the country.
Categories range from ‘Team of the Year’ and ‘Carer of the Year’ to ‘Dementia Care Champion’ and ‘Activities Coordinator of the Year’. Over 5,250 nominations were received from homes and hospitals across the UK, with all entries of a very high standard, with Amy over the moon to have been named a divisional winner in recognition of her hard work fundraising for the Foundation.
Set up in 2000, this year marks the Charitable Foundation’s 25th year supporting individuals, community groups and small charities all across the country. Over the past 12 months, brave Amy competed in not one but two gruelling challenges to raise funds for Barchester’s Charitable Foundation.
In September 2024 she completed the punishing Great North Run, her first ever competitive race, before, in June 2025 taking part in the mammoth Tour de Barchester four-day team cycling event which this year started in Dumfries, continuing through Cumbria and Lancashire, then finishing in Cheshire, covering over 225 miles via 17 different Barchester homes. Collectively through these two daunting events, Amy raised a whopping £3,880 for the Foundation.
Divisional Sales & Marketing Manager, Amy Melia, said: “I can’t believe I have been named the winner for the Midlands and North West!
“I am so proud and so thankful to everyone who nominated and voted for me. It means the world to be recognised for doing something I am so passionate about.
The Foundation does such vital work, I’m so happy I was able to challenge myself to take part and in doing so help to support so many people.” Amy will attend a special award ceremony which will take place at the Midland Hotel in Manchester in October to celebrate the outstanding achievements of Barchester’s many exemplary staff members who work tirelessly to deliver the best care to their residents and patients every day.
There she will find out who will be named Barchester’s National Foundation Champion 2025. General Manager of Harper Fields care home, Hayley Wilkinson, added: “This is such a fantastic achievement, the whole home is so proud of Amy.
“She is so dedicated and always go the extra mile, literally. She took part in not one but two fantastic challenges to raise money for the Foundation, she is an absolute superstar!”
