Emotional Angela Fan cried tears of joy moments after picking up the Woman in Business award.

Angela runs Bradford-based Study Links alongside her husband Eric Kin Sun Fan. The business is a guardianship organisation which acts for international children studying in the UK.

She said: "We look after overseas students, bring them to the UK, find them boarding schools, colleges and university places. We are a mum and dad to them, really."

Angela added: "I very much enjoy it. You are actually dealing with the lives of young children. The youngest we have had was a seven-year-old from Thailand.

"You go through the system with them and see them grow up. We get invited to weddings in countries like China."

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The journey to forming Study Links started in the late 1980s when Angela and Eric voluntarily acted as guardians for Eric's nephew and niece. Between 1991 and 1998, friends, family members, acquaintances and friends of friends came to the UK with Angela and Eric continuing to volunteer to help find suitable schools and act as guardians.

"We got asked to look after more and more," said Angela. "We had to decide that either we ran it as a business or we gave up. We love doing it so we did it as a business."

After receiving the award, Angela said: "It is amazing. I am a bit overcome and a little bit embarrassed - it's all a big surprise. I am very pleased and proud of everyone who has helped me along the way.

"I thank my whole family, the ones in the business and the ones that are not. The current team we have is wonderful."

Highly commended by judges were Asma Iqbal (Chadwick Lawrence) and Rachel Burrowes (Junior Jam).