A WARMINSTER woman has won an award seven years after not buying anything new for a whole year.

Jen Gale and her family demonstrated their ‘green’ credentials back in 2013 and have now won one of The People Environment Achievement Awards.

Mrs Gale and her family, have won the Greenest Family category in the UK’s leading annual awards, which congratulate the people and innovations helping to turn the idea of greener world from a hope into a reality.

Mrs Gale, 43, and her husband Ben, 45, spent a year not buying anything new for her young family, William, now 12, and Samuel, now nine.

She said: “It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. The children were young enough not to notice. I don’t think I could do it now.

“Once we started we realised how much stuff there is that you can get second hand.

“By the time you have found it, the impulse to buy gets removed and you realise you don’t really need it any more.”

Mrs Gale, of Hillwood Lane, Warminster, learned that personal choices do matter. She and her husband bought everything second hand, including children’s clothes and wellies and discovered that even one small family could create positive change for a greener world.

Mrs Gale now writes an inspirational blog, https://www.asustainablelife.co.uk/, passing on her experiences and knowledge so it’s easier for everyone to be greener.

Judges were very impressed with Jen, saying she ‘really does talk the talk, and walk the walk.’ She has written a brilliant ‘bible’ for everyday sustainability, which one judge said was the best handbook she’d seen.

The judges praised Jen for inspiring and educating vast numbers of folk; ’an absolute winner’.

2020 is the 10th anniversary of these awards and this milestone is being celebrated with the introduction of the extra category: Eco-Hero of the Decade Award for the person the public thinks has done most in the past 10 years to help us move towards a sustainable world. It has been won by Sir David Attenborough.

The judges of the P.E.A Awards included: Jo Wood, ex-wife of Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood and founder of Jo Wood Organics and a Bee Guardian; Cat Fletcher, founder of the UK website Freegle where 2.7 million people give rather than throw away unwanted stuff for free it; Michelle

Senecal De Fonseca, vice president and sustainability driver at Citrix; Safia Minney, award-winning social entrepreneur and internationally recognised for the company she founded: People Tree, a pioneer of sustainable fashion; Jordan Brompton, the driving force behind the company, myenergi, which designs and produces smart technology increasing the consumption of green energy; and Katie Hill, founder and editor-in-chief of green living magazine MyGreenPod.

For more details on the P.E.A.Awards go to https://www.peaawards.com.