THREE generous and caring children have made the shortlist for Pride of Cumbria’s Young Person of the Year award.

Layla-May Finley, Joshua Stewart and Lucy Nawrockyj have made the final three for the award after being nominated for their philanthropic deeds.

Layla-May, from Thornhill, has been busy fundraising for the NHS and managed to raise more than £20,000 last year by hand making and selling colourful bows.

She has also helped care for her younger brother who is on life support.

“She always helps look after him,” said mum, Amy Thomas.

“She helps put his ventilator on, she helps feed him through a peg.”

The twelve-year-old wanted to raise money for the NHS after seeing the amazing work the healthcare system does while it cared for her brother, who has spinal muscular atrophy, and after losing her grandmother to lung cancer last year.

“We’d visit the NHS a lot with Kylan in intensive care,” said Ms Thomas.

“So she wanted to give a little back.”

The cash helped fund food parcels for NHS staff, provided toys for children in hospital and much more.

“I’m proud of her everyday,” said Ms Thomas.

While Lucy Nawrockyj, from Cockermouth, was nominated by her mum Theresa Dawson after she decided to hike dozens of miles to raise money for the Calvert Trust.

In February, the nine-year-old battled wind and rain with her mum to walk fifty miles in 28 days for the charity, which arranges outdoor adventure holidays for disabled adults and children.

“She did her last walk in the rain and cold up Latrigg and finished off at the Calvert Trust and dropped her money in,” said Ms Dawson.

“She did really well.”

The youngster decided to embark on the epic mission because she wanted to help disabled children in her area.

“I wanted to help disabled children,” she said.

“To raise money for them so they can enjoy things.

“I felt really happy doing it, although it was quite hard and I got tired sometimes because I had to walk a long way.

“And it rained a lot.”

Ms Dawson added: “Lucy has a lot of children around her who have disabilities.

“She likes to look after children who aren’t as lucky as she is.

“She’s always looking after others, she’s a caring little thing.

“When she found out they needed money she came into the living room and said mum I want to do that for the children.”

The Ashfield Junior School pupil also helped look after her mum while she was ill.

“She’s had to be quit grown up in a short period of time,” added Ms Dawson.

Lucy said she felt ‘very happy’ to be shortlisted.

And Joshua Stewart, from Penrith, was nominated by his mum Lynsey Jenkins who thought her son deserved recognition for his community litter picks which he has been doing for two years.

"He's been litter picking in our local area," she said.

"Because where we live is very picturesque, close to the A6 looking towards Blencathra and a lot of the people pull into the layby opposite and chuck their litter out and it really upset him.

"So he took it upon himself to litter pick.

"He's very caring and he did it to look after the environment and the animals.

"I just thought he deserved some recognition for starting it at six and having such a kind heart."

The eight-year-old was 'overwhelmed' when he found out he had been shortlisted.

"He didn't really know how to take it," said Ms Jenkins.

"It was very much a surprise but he was really proud of himself too."

To find out the winner of this category and all the other Pride of Cumbria Award winners make sure you tune in to our virtual event on July 29 at 7pm by visiting https://event.sparq.me.uk/prideofcumbria/.