A FORMER Shebbear College student has won an ‘Animal Hero Award’, — the awards recognise and celebrate the most inspiring examples of bravery, dedication and resilience in the animal world.

Liam Landymore, 17, from Shebbear, was nominated as a finalist in the ‘Young Animal Enthusiast’ category of the Animal Hero Awards.

The ceremony, hosted by Amanda Holden, was held in London on Wednesday, September 7, where Liam was announced as one of the winners of the award for his work with animals.

The awards are a joint venture between the Daily Mirror and the animal welfare charity RSPCA. Together they pick the most inspiring animals along with the individual or teams who have shown outstanding commitment to improving their lives.

Liam was nominated for his work campaigning for cruelty-free training methods with ‘Dogs Helping Kids’.

When Liam was 12, he was referred to Dogs Helping Kids in Beaworthy after suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and depression after a childhood incident.

Liam attended Shebbear College for a few years but left when things didn’t work out due to his mental health. He was then taught at home with NDPLS, who sent a tutor out to him.

Liam used to work for Southern Pets to gain more experience, but has now set up his own business The Haven Dog Centre Ltd, but he still helps out at Southern Pets whenever they need him, which he loves.

He is the Young Ambassador for Dogs Helping Kids and is also their Teenage Adviser. As part of this role he attends workshops where he shows teachers the bond him and Charlie, his black Labrador cross Springer, have and how this could benefit the children in their school.

In 2014, Liam set up his own initiative a charity called ‘Liam’s-MOB — Men on Board’ and it is for this work that he has gained his new award.

Ahead of the finals Liam said: “It’s really cool being a finalist, I am really looking forward to the evening.

“It’s really great to be at an event that really showcases the positivity animals make to our lives, and to be with others who want to make a difference to animals’ lives.”

Liam said that he was very surprised to have won, adding: “I won the Young Animal Enthusiast category and yeah it was a big shock to me and was pretty emotional.

“I had Tom Fletcher from Mcfly and Alesha Dixon give me my award up on stage, which was pretty amazing.

“I then got to meet more celebrities back stage, who were there to support the awards, like Lucy Watson, Danny-Boy Hatchard from Eastenders, Brian May, the crazy couple from ‘Gogglebox’ and of course Amanda Holden.”

He was awarded the Young Animal Enthusiast award for 2016 for his charity ‘Liam’s MOB – Men on Board.’

The charity aims to inspire men to be kinder to their dogs and to use only positive, force-free training methods. Liam has even gained the support of leading dog trainers Nando Brown, Steve Mann, Chirag Patel and Jordan Shelley.

Liam’s mum, Rachael Landymore, said: “Liam won because of his achievements with his own charity. He suffered from PTSD and severe depression and has previously tried to commit suicide, twice. He is very open about this, even speaking about it in his speech at the awards, as he wants to raise awareness of how much working with animals has helped him.”

Liam has done a lot of work with the charity Dogs Helping Kids, as they really helped support him through his PTSD and depression.

Ms Landymore added: “It is fair to say they gave him his life back. He began working and training Charlie, a black Labrador cross Springer, so that he could become a dog to help kids as part of the charity’s work — to be honest it got him out of the brink.

“He then began doing work promoting the charity and finally started up Liam’s MOB as a side project and offshoot of the charity with Sarah Fischer, who is the wife of TV’s Anthony Head.”

Since then Liam has been working towards informing the public about how to train dogs using positive reinforcement methods in order to reduce the number of dog bites that are seen each year.

This is more prevalent amongst men and boys and Liam hopes to reduce the number of incidents by inspiring men to be kinder to their dogs and use only positive, force-free training methods.

Liam hopes to continue to support the charity and help more people and their dogs.

To find out more about ‘Liams-MOB’ visit his Facebook page @liamsmob or visit his website www.liams-mob.com