The Barcelona gold medalist is urging people up and down Britain to get in touch with their nearest HiQ centre and nominate an unsung member of their community, who carries out a great deal of unrecognised selfless work.

The campaign has been launched to coincide with HiQ’s attempt to position each of its 140 centre managers as "local heroes" who provide a familiar, friendly service for all of their customers.

Sally Gunnell said: 'It is an honour to be ambassador for HiQ’s Local Hero Campaign. It is wonderful to now be able to champion the work of others, through this initiative. Everyone has a local hero in their lives.

'It might be someone in the family, it might be a teaching assistant or a much loved community nurse or doctor. To be behind this campaign is really important to me. I’m really looking forward to reading all of the stories that come in.

'We want to see as many people get in touch with HiQ through emails, letters and phone calls.'

Once all entries have been received, 10 regional winners will be invited to an awards lunch in November with Sally, where an overall winner will be announced.

Each shortlisted regional winner will receive £250 for themselves, while the overall winner will receive £5,000 for their local community and £500 for themselves.

All details of the campaign can be found on www.hiqonline.co.uk/aboutUs/hiqHeroes where a full list of voting options will be available.