Notting Hill Carnival Ambassador wins special community award

Tyrone Allee with his Black History Month Collaborative Partnership Award, for services to the community as a Notting Hill Carnival Ambassador.

Congratulations to Tyrone Allee, a Trustee with Catholics for AIDS Prevention and Support (CAPS) - a Passionist Partner organisation - who was given a special Metropolitan Police Award for services to the community at a ceremony last Monday.

Tyrone received the Black History Month Collaborative Partnership Award, for his years of work as a Notting Hill Carnival Ambassador. The award 'celebrates an individual or group, who who have actively worked to empower and uplift the community, striving for positive change by helping to break down barriers between the Metropolitan Police Service and the Black Community.'

As a Carnival Ambassador, Tyrone works with a group of other people mediating between the police and the community. He explained: "We are there to calm things things down if the police start stopping people. Sometimes we help people who are lost." "Our role is to be peacemakers" Tyrone said. "The police treat us very well."

Tyrone said: "I was born and bred in Lewisham, south London where there is a lively Caribbean community. My parents came from Trinidad and Tobago - they were the Windrush generation. "I grew up with the Carnival, so it was very natural for me to offer my services there. All the work I do at the Carnival is voluntary."

For his day job, Tyrone is a qualified alternative health practitioner, working with reflexology, aromatherapy, and sports injury massage therapy.

News of the award was a complete surprise to him. He said: "I've never had any reward or recognition for anything.... i just do the work I enjoy in the community and suddenly one day after 15 years of doing this I'm pulled aside and told I've been nominated for a prestigious award... totally shocked!!.. It came at a time when I least expected it. God is great! "