Last night London Friend got to collect our GSK IMPACT Award 2016 in a ceremony at the Science Museum.

Our GSK IMPACT Award in partnership with The King’s Fund was announced in April. The awards recognise the achievements of small and medium charities working in health and social care. 10 winners received £30,000 of unrestricted funding, plus the opportunity to further develop their organisation with a leadership programme and by joining the professional network of former award winners.

Our Award recognises the work we have done to adapt as an LGBT organisation to meet the changing needs of our communities. It particularly focussed on our work to highlight chemsex trends to healthcare staff and policy makers.

Our CEO Monty Moncrieff said “Having the opportunity to spend three days with such great charities was very powerful. The training built on areas identified in the very thorough assessment process, and allowed us to learn from one another. I’m really looking forward to keeping in touch with the other winners”.

The Award also comes with a short film about each winning organisation. It was incredibly moving to see the work of other winners brought to life, as we all saw the films for the first time during the ceremony.

Monty gave a speech after collecting the Award, highlighting the significance of an LGBT charity winning a mainstream award.

Monty added “We’d like to thank GSK and The King’s Fund once again for this Award, which is testimony to the hard work of our volunteer team. Congratulations too to all the other winners.”

Here's our reactions after receiving the Award: