Do you know an amazing woman?

The Lesley Pearse Women of Courage Award aims to recognise incredible women across the UK who have overcome immense hardship, shown determination to achieve something great or have dedicated their lives to helping others.

The award was founded in 2006 by bestselling women’s fiction writer Lesley Pearse, author of 20 novels including Stolen, Belle and, most recently, The Promise, who is keen to recognise real-life heroines after inventing so many fictional ones in her books.

To nominate somebody you know, fill in the form on this page and tell us why you think your nominee deserves to win The Lesley Pearse Women of Courage Award.

Visitors to iVillage.co.uk will be able to vote for their favourite long-list of nominees, and the final winner will be chosen by Lesley and a panel of judges.

The winner and her family will be invited to London for a sumptuous awards lunch with Lesley where the winner will be presented with a hand crafted award, a cheque for £1,000 and £500 of Penguin Books. 

Deadline for entries: midnight on Sunday, 15 April 2012.

All correctly completed entried will be forwarded to a judging panel which includes Lesley Pearse and members of her Penguin Books publishing team. The Promoter will use any data submitted by entrants only for the purposes of running the competition, unless otherwise stated in the entry details. By entering this competition, all entrants consent to the use of their personal data by the Promoter for the purposes of the administration of this competition and any other purposes to which the entrant has consented.