Thirty postmen and women were awarded for acts of bravery, life saving, community service, volunteering and charity work by the One Show's Christine Bleakley and Royal Mail Managing Director, Mark Higson.

The overall winner was Lancing postman James Macdonald, who created the “Super Heroes Run”, the flagship event of a charity he created called Passingiton.

Since 2004 the charity has raised nearly £300,000 for school building projects in Kenya and Ghana, with a new one underway in Gambia.

Stephen Jones from Bangor and Vinny Earl from Droylsden were joint winners of Royal Mail’s National Bravery Award.Stephen helped two people escape from a house fire. He was out on his rounds in Llanfairfechan, near Bangor, when he saw smoke coming from the house and ran inside to help. Because the fire service was delayed he went back to douse the flames with a fire extinguisher but was beaten back by flames.

Vinny twice rushed into a burning house to save a childhood friend after a gas explosion. Kevin Murphy was badly burned and lying on the floor when Vinny ran into the blaze to bring him out.

Vinny braved the flames a second time when Kevin staggered back into the blazing building looking for his dog. Kevin was in hospital for three weeks and the house was destroyed by the fire.

Royal Mail’s National Community Award winner was Simon Collins from New Romney Delivery Office.

For 10 years Simon has been a volunteer RNLI navigator and first aider for the Dungeness lifeboat, on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. He was awarded a gallantry medal in 2006 for a dramatic sea rescue and in his spare time, Simon is a DJ on Romney Marsh FM, the local community radio.

Christine Bleakley said: “In the UK, our postmen and women are a group of very remarkable people who contribute so much to our society. Their acts of kindness, fundraising and commitment to volunteering, make a real difference to the local communities where they live and work.”