The founder of a not-for-profit cafe which raises money for emotional support sessions for young women, has been honoured with an award.
Sophie Alway won the West Country Women in Hospitality award for the Village Kitchen, a cafe in Redruth which helps fund the charity Georgia’s Voice.
Alway founded Georgia’s Voice after her teenage daughter took her own life during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and she opened the cafe 18 months ago.
She said the charity had been actively supporting 120 women aged 18-25 and it was “absolutely amazing to get some recognition for the cafe”.
Alway said the charity had welcomed more than 1,000 young women to The Chy, a counselling and drop-in hub behind the cafe during 2025.
She said: “It’s [the cafe] one of our ways of bringing in an income to keep our services running and free.”
She explained the Village Kitchen was “a little village, it’s a really wonderful, warm community space which anybody can access” and all the funds went to the support services.
She said: “In five years, I think we have achieved so much with our support groups, we’ve now got our drop-in hub, we’ve got our free counselling service, we’re just opening more and more things all the time, which is brilliant.
“It absolutely is such a fantastic legacy for my daughter, her memory is living on, everybody knows her name, it is fantastic,” she added.
