Jooly's Joint's Awards

11 July 2000 turned out to be the most amazing day in the life of Jooly's Joint.

Jooly's Joint had reached the final of the UK's two most prestigious internet awards. By amazing co-incidence, both award ceremonies were held in London on the same night!

To be sure I could be present at both ceremonies, I hired a driver to drive me back and forth between the two venues! I also enlisted the help of Jooly's Joint member Nessa, who stayed at one venue while I was at the other, ready to take my place in case the car got stuck in traffic!

Good thing too, as we won awards at BOTH ceremonies! Jooly's Joint won 'Best Online Community' at the News Statesman New Media Awards and 'Mirror Readers' Choice' at the Yell UK Internet Awards.

What a night!

Jooly makes our acceptance speech at the Yell Awards, with Jooly's Joint member Nessa Folks

The Yell UK Web Awards

Jooly's speech

"I'm Julie and this is Nessa one of the 10,000 members of Jooly's Joint. We both have MS. This has been a very exciting night for us, as less than an hour ago we were at the New Statesman New Media Awards where Jooly's Joint also won in the category of 'Best Online Community'.

"We'd like to thank the readers of The Mirror, the MS Society, Ruth Carlyle, Steve Darrall and Eurobell for their support, and most importantly the 10 thousand people with MS that use Jooly's Joint for giving me their most precious gift - their trust.

"We'd like to dedicate this award to two special men in our lives - John Hutton and John Denham MPs, Ministers of State at the Dept of Health. John and John, you're in a very privileged position. Every night tens of thousands of people with MS include you in our prayers. We pray that God will grant you the grace to reverse the preliminary decision of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence to make the drug beta interferon unavailable on the NHS. I can't run Jooly's Joint if I'm incapacitated. By denying us beta interferon you risk denying us rewarding, active and fulfiled lives. Please, please re-consider."

Winner: Mirror Readers Award

Runner-up: Best Personal Site

Gorgeous TV personality Jonathan Ross, Jooly, Andy Green (BT Openworld), Nessa and the very lovely Matt Kelly of the Mirror newspaper (we love you Matt!).

A big thank you to the Mirror readers that voted for us!

New Statesman New Media Awards

• Winner: Online Community Award
• The results in full

New Statesman Award winners!

Rt Hon Dr Mo Mowlam MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster presents Jooly with our award for Best Online Community.

What the press said about our double success:

The Mirror:
"Our readers chose an organisation that for me epitomizes the internet at its best. The winner may not be the flashiest on the shortlist, but it is all about what can be so great about the web; enabling a group of people with a common interest to meet, share experiences, learn - and most importantly - talk to each other. Inspire each other. And that's especially so when that community is built in the face of a disease like multiple sclerosis."

Internet Magazine:
"An excellent support site and online community for people with MS, their friends and families, created by Julie Howell. Its strong branding, logo and colours work particularly well, and it's a testament to Julie's work that this site has become a successful global network."

Internet Advisor
"We rule! Internet Advisor reader triumphs at this year's Yell UK Web Awards. Oh, and some companies won awards, as well... exciting though all this is, it's not as exciting for us as Julie's victory."

Yell:
"Great sense of community and support."

The Register:
"It wasn't all nonsense. No, Mirror columnist, friend of The Reg and all-round great guy Matt Kelly gave an emotional speech when he presented a special award to multiple sclerosis community mswebpals.org. We have been reliably informed that there was not a dry eye in the house."

[MSers] [Family] [Fun] [Contact JJ] [About Jooly] [Site Map]