Awards honour for region's most inspirational women

Lizzie Jones, from Halifax, won the ITV's Lorraine Inspirational Woman of the Year Award

The Women of the Year Awards in London yesterday recognised six women for their achievements and contribution.

They included a Lifetime Achievement award for Leeds’s cultural lynchpin Dame Fanny Waterman, who set up the city’s flagship Leeds International Piano Compettion in 1961.

The widow of rugby league player Danny Jones, Lizzie Jones, from Halifax was also honoured at the awards.

She was recognised after campaigning for rule changes in the sport following the death of her husband to an undiagnosed heart condition.

And Margaret Aspinall, whose son James died in the Hillsborough disaster, was also honoured with an award.

She has since chaired the Hillsborough Family Support Group and received the award on behalf on all of the families affected by the tragedy in 1989.

Dame Fanny said: “I actually wept a tear when I found out about the award because I thought of my great parents and my wonderful husband and all the people and the way they have helped me to achieve everything I have ever wanted in my life.”