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Vitality Ambassador Jessica Ennis-Hill is a previous winner of the coveted Sportswoman of the Year award and four teams will be battling it out to win the Vitality Team of the Year accolade.
Winners of other categories to be revealed on the night include Young Sportswoman of the Year, Disability Sportswoman of the Year and the recipient of the Community Award.
The Community Award, which is voted for exclusively by Vitality members, congratulates recognises those who have actively engaged people within their local community through sport, often the unsung heroes of the sporting world.
This year’s shortlist includes women from a Merseyside volunteer-run football club for the homeless; Silverfit, a London charity which encourages fitness and wellbeing amongst older people; a Hove hockey club coach; a London double jab boxing club volunteer and a Kent-based gymnastics coach.
These awards show how a huge difference can be made to people’s lives through the benefit of sport, and by living an active, healthier life.
At VitalityLife we strive to improve people’s health and fitness.
The healthier they get, the more people get back, and the more they’ll be able to get out of life. We give people rewards for healthy behaviour through everyday benefits within their protection plans, such as annual cashback and annual premium discounts, 50% off gym membership (a joining fee will apply), weekly cinema tickets, Starbucks coffee and discounted holidays and days out - as well as knowing they have valuable financial protection in place for themselves or their family should they fall seriously ill or be unable to work.
As an industry it’s long been said that we need to do so much more to make people aware of the benefits of protection, and how fundamental a part of safeguarding family finances and wellbeing it is.
Recent ONS figures show that currently more than 2 million people are not looking for work in the UK due to long-term sickness. This is 62,000 more people than last year, a huge increase.
Many families will find that they would soon be unable to afford the basics to keep their standard of living if they lost their income.
Initiatives like Seven Families should be embraced by us all as an opportunity to collectively shout about the good work the protection industry does. It’s easy to share content that Seven Families posts on social media, so collectively we can reach the largest audience possible.
Indeed, it recently held an industry ‘action day’, to create a bigger bang by getting everyone to promote protection messages on the same day. If you’re not aware of the Seven Families campaign, it exists to highlight the need for income protection by supporting seven families who have lost an income, as if they had an income protection policy in place.
It showcases their stories of incredible determination, to get back to a productive life after accident or illness.
Just as we encourage people to take action to live a healthier life, we all need to ensure the great messages of what we do as an industry, and how we help families every day, comes across.
Not resting on your laurels and achieving goals is something all the nominees for the 2015 Sunday Times and Sky Sports Sportswomen of the Year Awards in association with Vitality will have in common.
In that spirit, let’s all take action and give raising the profile of protection the energy it deserves.
