THE charitable arm of insurance giant Zurich won special recognition from the High Sheriff of Wiltshire last night at an awards ceremony.

The Zurich Community Trust, Zurich’s own charity, hosted the High Sheriff of Wiltshire William Wyldbore-Smith at a special evening, which saw charity partners and staff from the company attend.

At the end of last year ZCT celebrated their 40th anniversary of working to help communities, including Swindon, and the trust’s founder Lord Joel Joffe was also among the audience.

As Head of the Community Trust for the last 20 years, Pam Webb said she was delighted to have won the recognition.

She said: “It’s lovely and very nice coming so soon after last year’s celebration of 40 years of the Zurich Community Trust. For me what sets us apart from the other corporates that do this sort of giving back to the community is the way it’s done collaboratively and all employees help to raise the money.

“We are also this year celebrating 25 years of the team challenge programme, which we will continue to promote locally.

“In the years I’ve been doing the job I think the impact of the recession and the austerity measures mean where charities were, five or six years ago, asking for funding for innovation, now they are asking for funding to cover their salary costs. They are very squeezed.”