Thurrock paid tribute to its unsung heroes and heroines on Friday night.

The inaugural Civic Awards saw four top prizes presented and five other nominees celebrated.

Perhaps the most shocked of all the people in a packed Civic Hall at Blackshots was 18-year-old Lucy Plant.

She had agreed to come to the event with her friends from the Thurrock Youth Service, little knowing she would play a key role.

"I picked up a programme and though: 'Oh my God!', there was my picture! The former Torells schoolgirl had been nominated for the Young Citizen of the Year award, along with Matthew Anderson and Amy Cox.

For much of her early life Lucy suffered from low self-esteem, lacking confidence in herself and her abilities after being placed in a variety of foster homes and several unfortunate educational experiences.

But she has put that behind her now. After leaving school she joined the Kickstart and Learning Gateway schemes run through the borough's Youth Service in Grays and now has plans to return to college, study for her A levels, and a university career with the eventual aim of becoming a lawyer. With the Youth Service she not only undertakes training, but acts as a trainer herself.

Her new-found confidence shone through as she stepped up with the other nominees to find out who would be named Thurrock's Young Citizen and when her name was read out by Thurrock Council chief executive Dr Eric Nath, there was only a moment's hesitation as she took the microphone and in true Oscar style said her thankyous.

Speaking afterwards she said: "I really didn't know I'd been nominated, and when I saw my face in the programme my first thought was to run away. "But then I thought to myself: 'I'm going to do it'.

"I didn't think I'd win, I thought it would be Amy - I was really shocked when my name was read out."

Amy Cox is Thurrock's Youth MP and the other nominee, Matthew, has overcome a series of difficulties during the past couple of years.

He suffered continual harassment and three separate assaults, bravely going to court to confront his attackers, and then suffered serious injuries in a road accident.

But he continually bounces back, so much so that he was unable to be at the awards ceremony - instead joining his band for a gig before returning to Blackshots later in the evening.

Other winners were:

Citizen of the Year: Winner, Peter Hewitt; nominees, Christopher Guile, John Keeling and Janet McCheyne.

Freeman of the Borough: Dot Coker.

Mayor's Special Award: Rachel Middleton.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.