Yorkshire Asian Young Achiever Awards: All the 2022 shortlisted nominees including ITV Yorkshire's Arif Ahmed

The awards, which recognise young people of South Asian heritage who have overcome traditional barriers, deprivation and disadvantage, have attracted a record number of entries across 11 categories.

Among the 33 shortlisted candidates is ITV Yorkshire sports reporter and presenter Arif Ahmed, who has been shortlisted in the Media category for covering high profile stories, including Mose Masoe taking his first steps unaided after serious spinal injury.

Arqam Al-Hadeed, already an award-winning speaker and youth leader, is in the running in the Not-for-profit category for representing more than 180,000 young people of Leeds in the House of Commons as a Youth MP. Meanwhile, Leeds athlete Ubaid Hussain, a gold medallist in Muay Thai, has been shortlisted sports category.

Dr Mohammed Ali OBE, founder and chief executive of the charity QED, which is hosting the awards, said: “Many [nominees] have overcome great obstacles to achieve what they have and it’s wonderful to be able to share their stories with a wider audience and highlight their successes and achievements in such a positive way.”

In the Overcoming Life Obstacles category, two of those named on the shortlist have links to the city. They are engineering graduate Zeeshan Hussain from Pudsey and Muhammad Waqar Ahmed, an IT support worker at the University of Leeds.

Elsewhere, optometrist Benji Chandra has been named in the Mental Health and Healthcare category in recognition of the way that he gives his spare time to helping homeless people in Leeds by volunteering at Vision Care.

Nominees in other categories include University of Leeds midwifery student Jawairiya Khan and Aminah Ahmed, a student engagement assistant at the University of Leeds.

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Cedar Court Hotel in Bradford on Friday November 11 when one of the category winners will also be named the overall Young Achiever of the Year 2022.

NHS worker Huma Malik took home the overall award in 2021 for her volunteering work during the pandemic. She has continued to inspire, becoming the trustee of the Mental Health Foundation and engagement officer for NHS Leeds Clinical Commissioning Group.

BBC TV and Radio presenter and comedian Noreen Khan will be announcing this year’s winners, with event also due to be broadcast live.

All the nominees at this year’s awards

Sport

Ikra Ali, Bradford

Usama Mujtaba, Bradford

Ubaid Hussain, Leeds

Mental Health and Healthcare

Anish Mistry, Bradford

Benji Chandra, Leeds

Faiza Hussain, Huddersfield

Arts and Creative Industries

Mariam Rashid, Bradford

Awais Hussain, Bradford

Mariyah Kayat, Bradford

Media

Arif Ahmed, Leeds

Yusef Alam, Bradford

Pishdaad Modaressi Chahardehi, Bradford

Education

Iqrah Ali, Bradford

Aminah Ahmed, Bradford

Iesa Sabir, Bradford

Private Sector

Sarah Asghar Ileyas, Wakefield

Habib Karimi, Bradford

Maihvish Iqbal, Bradford

School or College

Zain Hussain, Bradford

Hunniya Akram, Bradford

Jawairiya Khan, Bradford

Public Sector

Thanim Adil Hussain, Bradford

Mehr Ahmar, Bradford

Zahida Sultan, Bradford

Not-For-Profit Sector

Arqam Al-Hadeed, Leeds

Ekansh Kapoor, York

Sahar Ijaz, Bradford

Young Entrepreneurs

Bilal Akhtar, Bradford

Yeasin Mohammed, Bingley

Haseeb Hussain, Bradford

Overcoming Life Obstacles

Neil Bharat Patel, Leicester

Zeeshan Hussain, Pudsey

Muhammad Waqar Ahmed, Bradford