A West Yorkshire police officer, along with a prolific fundraiser, have both made the finals for a coveted national award – and they both hail from Bradford!
Having beaten off some 90,000 applicants for the awards, PC Dharmesh Mistry, and prolific fundraiser – Nazim Ali, have made it into the final eight of the ‘Positive Role Model for Race, Religion and Faith’ category of this year’s National Diversity Awards.
Acclaimed the ‘Golden Globes’ of the diversity world, the National Diversity Awards unites UK citizens irrespective of race, faith, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability and culture.
PC Mistry has been a serving officer with West Yorkshire Police since 2005 and currently works in the force’s People department as an Internal Quality Assurer. Despite suffering with arthritis in both knees, PC Mistry is an active volunteer with numerous initiatives across West Yorkshire, helping the homeless and vulnerable with food and clothing.
The trustee of the Bradford Hindu Council and the current Temp Chair of the WY Hindu Police Association, he’s also a member of the National Police Chiefs’ Council Race and Religion Team and part of the Leeds Council Strategic Faith Leaders Board.
More recently, he’s organised and implemented the Leeds Faith Trail, which takes colleagues and members of the community to experience different faith establishments – visiting a Mosque, Hindu Temple, a Church, Gurdwara and a Synagogue.
PC Mistry, said: “My passion of bringing awareness of my Hindu faith and its community to mine and other organisations and to other faith communities has been at the forefront of my work.
“Volunteering has helped me get through the dark days in my life and has allowed me to make a positive difference to people less fortunate than myself, so to be considered as a role model for the things I do makes me feel very proud.”
Nazim Ali, meanwhile, has been shortlisted for his unstinting dedication and relentless commitment to community, charity and humanitarian aid initiatives in the UK and overseas.
Nazim, known as the ‘Ramadan Runner’ for his running challenges whilst fasting, he’s been fundraising for over 26-years for numerous charitable causes both here at home and abroad.
His astonishing endeavours have seen him raise a massive £950,000 for charity in the last 12-years alone, and he says he can’t wait to hit the ‘Magical £1M Milestone’.
“I am profoundly humbled to have been shortlisted for the National Diversity Awards 2024,” said Nazim. “To be a finalist after over 90,000 nominations shows just how fierce the competition was just to get shortlisted. God willing as a proud Bradfordian I look forward to representing my city at the awards evening.”
Winners will be announced on 4th October, 2024 at the prestigious 13th National Diversity Awards in the stunning Liverpool Anglican Cathedral.
