Two sisters from Kenilworth named on national 'roll of honour' for their outstanding work during the pandemic

Two sisters from Kenilworth have been named on a national 'roll of honour' for their outstanding work during the pandemic.

Ciara and Seanna Hamill have been recognised on the UK Social Enterprise Roll of Honour at a special event bringing together the UK’s business community.

What makes it more astonishing is that they were the youngest recipients in the UK having set up their business at 17 and 19 years old.

The Roll of Honour was announced at Social Enterprise Futures which took place between November 25-26 and saw nearly 1,000 attendees come together to celebrate the heroes of 2020.

Ciara and Seanna have featured many times in the Courier and Weekly News over the months for providing essential PPE throughout the whole of the UK and Ireland, parts of Spain, France and even as far as Peru.

The young entrepreneurs set up SanHanzUK when they tried to source hand sanitiser to help their mum but discovered inflated prices and dubious products.

From the start the business was set up as a social enterprise with a mission to get PPE to the people who most needed it.

Sales have allowed them to give away over 5,000 pieces of PPE to frontline workers, mostly in Warwickshire.

They also work closely with foodbanks, which have themselves seen a surge in demand as the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic became apparent.

At the Social Enterprise Futures event Ciara and Seanna were celebrated along with all the others on the Social Enterprise Roll of Honour, by a session hosted by actor, comedian and director, Chris Addison.

The Roll of Honour acknowledges those individuals and businesses which, over the course of an extremely challenging year, have 'demonstrated the strength, passion and resilience which is so characteristic of the social enterprise sector'.

Over 400 nominations were received from those within the social enterprise sector as well as supporters of the sector.

Commenting on being named as part of the Roll of Honour, Seanna said: “We are so flattered to receive this recognition, but its not the reason we began.

"Simply put, we started our endeavour just to protect our mother. Growth become exponential and a lot of that is thanks to the people of Kenilworth and Warwickshire for their support.”

In an incredibly short period of time the business has grown from strength to strength and they are now providing both branded and white label bespoke products to clients ranging from law firms and cafes to engineering firms, professional football clubs, the BBC and NHS.

They also distribute products free of charge to charities, even designing labels for them and letting them sell them on given normal methods of fundraising have been affected by COVID restrictions. Recent beneficiaries have included the RNLI and Myton Hospice.

If customers are social enterprises, they are automatically suppled with an additional 20 per cent gifted product.