Christian charity The Message Trust has been awarded first place in The Sunday Times' annual Best Companies survey, in the Not-For-Profits category.

The award was presented at a gala dinner at Battersea Evolution in London on Wednesday evening.

The charity was placed second in 2017 and eleventh in 2016.

For the second year running, founder and chief executive Andy Hawthorne also collected a special award for Best Leader.

Hawthorne, who collected the award with his senior leadership team, said: 'We were so honoured last year to come second and never would have dreamed of being able to top that. We really value all our staff and I'm delighted that this year they've helped us to place even higher this year.'

The Message Trust has been demonstrating the Christian faith in schools, prisons and tough communities across the UK for more than 25 years. Having started in Manchester, it now operates from UK hub locations in Manchester, South Wales, Scotland, the Midlands, Yorkshire and London, and internationally in South Africa, Canada and Germany.

'There's never been a more exciting time for us as an organisation – we're growing faster than ever before,' Hawthorne said. 'It's incredible to think that we've literally gone from working out of a spare bedroom to the global movement we are today, reaching hundreds of thousands of people a year.'