EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD Jess Moreton has not let living with an illness stop her helping others.

She was among those recognised at the 2014 Pride of Somerset Youth Awards.

For the last three years she has been helping in her community and has become a committed and regular volunteer at events supported by the Volunteer Network.

One of her key roles has been at Bath and West Show with the RSPCA and Somerset Youth Volunteering Network’s ‘Hot Dog Crew’.

The group helps to search for dogs left in hot cars and her role is to set up the volunteer point each morning and register and kit-up more than 100 volunteers from all over the region.

The awards are run by the Rotary Club of Taunton, your Somerset County Gazette, Bridgwater Mercury, Chard and Ilminster News, Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News and local radio station BBC Somerset.

A prize fund came from sponsorship from the Rotary Club, Avon and Somerset Constabulary, Somerset Cricket Museum and Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service.

Certificates were presented at Somerset College’s conference centre in Taunton, which was provided free by the college.

To watch video footage from the ceremony, which took place on March 7, see below.