THE managing director of a care centre and nature reserve in Worcestershire has been nominated for our Worcestershire Care Hero award.

Jim Hidderley, 51, runs the Wildgoose Rural Training and Nature Reserve at Old Quarry Drive in Hallow.

Staff at the centre work with adults with learning difficulties, young people with mental health issues and pupils who struggle at school.

At Wildgoose, Jim and his team work with their students on a wide-range of activities, including farming with the centre's animals, gardening, woodwork, animal care, cooking, and much more.

Jim was nominated for the award by Ben Showan, a part-time worker and volunteer at the centre.

Ben said he had struggled with mental illness and survived a suicide attempt last year when he came to Wildgoose.

Ben said: "The staff here at Wildgoose and specifically Jim, were key to getting me back on my feet. I started barely being able to do half a day a week. I'm now here four days a week as a volunteer and one day a week as a member of staff working on IT projects. Due to this I've since been able to get my life back.

"Jim is one of a kind from my point of view. He has worked tirelessly throughout both lockdowns in order to keep our care farm open as a care provision for adults and young people with a range of disabilities, as well as providing a setting for school age children who are struggling with mainstream education to take a break in a rural setting."

Wildgoose was set up in 1999, and Jim started running the centre in 2016.

Jim said he was humbled to be nominated.

"We have all worked hard, I run the centre but without the staff, including Ben, I don’t think the centre would have carried on running as it did," said Jim.

"I've got an amazing team and an amazing group of students - we don’t see disability as a stumbling block or as something to be afraid of or ashamed of.

"We work with a lot of autistic young people, and routine is very important.

"When we had the lockdown many of our students got confused and sometimes very upset as their routine was thrown out of the window, so it we were keen to get back up and running as quickly as we could.

"I'd be very humbled to win, and it would be lovely, but for me it would be more about acknowledging not just what I do, but all of the staff and the students here after what has been a really tough for year for so many people –it would not just be an award for me, it would be ab award for everybody at Wildgoose."

You can vote for your Worcestershire Care Hero 2020 by filling in the form in the newspaper.

You can also vote by emailing michael.purton@newsquest.co.uk. Please put ‘Worcestershire Care Heroes 2020’ as the subject of the email, and include the following information:

  • The name of the carer
  • Where they work
  • Why you think they deserve to win the award
  • Your name and your contact phone number so that we can call you in order to gather details for the feature profiling the carer you’ve nominated.

The deadline for voting is 10am on Monday, December 21.

The winner will be announced on Christmas Eve.