Winner of the Pokerstars Awards for Third Sector: Supporting our Community at the Awards For Excellence has been named as Isle of Man Civil Defence Corps.

Now in its 70th year, the group has been acknowledged at the Isle of Man Newspapers’ event for contributing nearly 6,000 volunteer hours in helping the island’s emergency services

Michelle Sayle of Isle of Man Civil Defence Corps collected the award at the Villa Marina, Douglas, tonight (Thursday).

Finalists included: parent-led campaign Monitors4Kids and Manx Diabetic Group; Just Ask – The Allergy Campaign and the Isle of Man Anti-Cancer Association.

As a small island with limited resources to deal with severe weather or a major incident, Civil Defence personnel are deployed to support the emergency services when required.

The 45 volunteers who make up the service are on call 24/7, 365 days a year.

They also train in all weathers to be able to assist with hill searches for lost and vulnerable people and to be able to provide first aid and the safe evacuation of casualties.

They also support a number of community events such as Relay for Life, the Manx Mountain Marathon and the End2End walk.

The judges said: ‘This is their 70th year of supporting the community and emergency services. A truly dedicated group of people who last year contributed more than 5,800 volunteer hours to the island.’

• Watch the livestreaming of the event by searching: https://video.ibm.com/channel/dqCH865pmTG or follow live updates via our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages @iomnewspapers

Read more about the awards and its special guests in the Isle of Man Examiner, which comes out on Tuesday.