A voluntary service tackling the spread of tuberculosis has been recognised with a national award.

The work of Redbridge CVS on raising awareness of the lung disease and setting up a partnership to deal with the issue in Redbridge was honoured at the Excellence in Health and Wellbeing event at the House of Lords, beating 70 other nominations to the prize.

Manager Swati Vyas received the award from Public Health Minister Jane Ellison.

The service was launched after a report in August found Redbridge had the sixth highest number people infected with TB in London, with 56.3 people per 100,000 reported to be affected.

Redbridge CVS employs 11 people who visit those affected by the illness and has so far reached 6000 people in the borough, with 75 group sessions also having taken place.
 
Redbridge CVS also held sessions at schools to raise TB awareness .
 
It has secured funding for the next three years from Public Health Redbridge.
 

The TB Partnership is a collaboration between Redbridge CVS, Public Health Redbridge, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust and Redbridge Clinical Commissioning Group.

The partnership meet four times a year to discuss how to best tackle tuberculosis in the borough.