METRO Radio managing director Sally Aitchison vowed to build on her success after winning the title Woman of Achievement.

Mrs Aitchison was presented with the top award in the inaugural Women in Business Awards at Hardwick Hall Hotel, Sedgefield, County Durham, on Friday and also won the manager of the year category.

Accepting her award, she said: "As with most things, it is down to the people you work with.

"I inherited a superb team of people who just needed a little bit of direction.

"We have gone through an enormous change but we've put on 750,000 listening hours and grown the audience by 45,000. The challenge now is to keep the momentum going."

Mrs Aitchison arrived at Metro 15 months ago when the station was losing listeners and revenue.

She completely restructured the business and changed every on-air presenter except one.

Mrs Aitchison, who has a son, aged four, and daughter, seven, admitted she had found the past 15 months at Metro challenging.

"It has been hard work but it has probably been one of the most rewarding phases of my career," she said.

"I think you have to make hard decisions if you want to make something work. We have turned the company round but we will not be complacent about the future.

"We have to keep going forward and build on what we've done already to make sure Metro stays at the top."

Darlington aromatherapist Dorothy Cormack won the against adversity award.

She was praised by the judges for her "determination and resourcefulness" while nursing her terminally ill husband and going to evening classes to retrain.

Sports masseur, Sharon Gaytor, from Middlesbrough, won juggler of the year and Diane West, of Darlington YMCA Millennium Volunteers, was named networker of the year.

Mary Boulton, of William House Nursery in Darlington, won the creative product/service award and Lisa Sinclair, of Redcar-based management consultancy RJ Consulting, was young entrepreneur.

Yvonne Cook, of the Priory Nursery in Middlesbrough, won the training and development award.

The best community-based business was won by Skerne Park Childcare Centre, in Darlington.

Paul Turner, Abbey National, the awards' major sponsor, said: "Everyone nominated should consider themselves a winner. We really hope this is the start of something special for our region."

Guest speaker at the event was paralympic athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson