Jarrow shopkeeper wins national award for his kind-hearted efforts through the covid pandemic

Nico Ali, who runs the Premier shop in Edinburgh Road on Jarrow’s Scotch Estate, was given the Spirit of the Community Award at the 31st Asian Trader Awards during a virtual ceremony.

The shopkeeper, who has run the business with brother Taz Ali for 30 years, sprung into action after lockdown was imposed in March 2020, when he delivered free bread and milk to vulnerable residents on the estate.

Over the festive period Santa and Nico gave out presents to local children, and free curries to keep people fed and warm.

The shop also donated hundreds pallets of bottled water to NHS workers at South Tyneside and Sunderland hospitals when Covid first kicked in and, after finding out that Hebburn Helps food bank was running low on stock, Nico turned up there with crates of cereal, custard and tinned fruit.

But the list of good deeds is longer than that and in May 2020 Nico and Taz appeared on the Channel 4 documentary Britain’s Unsung Heroes.

At the ceremony, hosted by impressionist Rory Bremner, Asian Trader described Nico as: “A true unsung hero and the bedrock of his local community.

“He provided food parcels and hampers to hospital staff, supplied food banks and even drove hundreds of miles to ensure his customers could get essential supplies of pasta, hand sanitiser and toilet rolls when there were shortages.

“He even delivered birthday cakes and signed football shirts for the local children.”

Nico said: “When I got the award I felt emotional because of all the effort we’ve put in during the pandemic. It’s still going on. I feel like the award is for the community and all the team who have worked with me during this time. Without them we couldn’t have done all this.

“Lots of people have been a big help to us – and I certainly couldn’t have done it without Taz.

“Thank you for supporting the shop. It’s been a tough time.”

Nico was a joint winner of the Spirit of the Community Award, along with Jawad Javed of Stenhousemuir in Scotland.

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