As the country gears up to celebrate Burns' Night, the finalists for this year's Robert Burns Humanitarian Award 2018, have been announced.

The trio were hand-picked from nominations received from around the world for people who have saved, improved or enriched the lives of others or society as a whole, through personal self-sacrifice, selfless service or direct humanitarian work.

Mason Kidd, the 12-year-old from Cumnock, carried out 18 ‘acts of kindness’ last year in memory of his brother who died of cancer at the age of two.

Mason’s brother Ross would have been 18 on December 1, 2017.

Since March 2017, Mason, who has autism, has taken pizzas to the local fire station, treated his local police officers to doughnuts, left tennis balls in the park in Cumnock for dog walkers and their pets, and bought teddies for the babies at Ayrshire Maternity Neonatal Unit.

Mason said: “I was so excited and honoured to be nominated for the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award. And now to find out I’m one of three finalists is incredible.

"I hope to be able to make more people smile hearing about my Kidd Kindness Project.

"While doing my project I’ve been able learn more about amazing people who do amazing things like people who have previously been finalists for the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award and I just can’t believe I’m among these astonishing folk.”

Sandra Brown OBE, originally from Coatbridge, was eight when her neighbour, 11-year-old Moira Anderson, went missing in 1957.

Some 27 years later, Sandra’s estranged father admitted to being involved in Moira Anderson’s abduction.

She discovered that her father (who died in 2006) was a convicted child molester and founded The Moira Anderson Foundation (MAF) in 2000 as a legacy to Moira Anderson and her family.

As a recognised expert in her field, Sandra was a founding member of the Cross-Party Group for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse at the Scottish Parliament.

By 2015, her charity MAF had supported 2,000 families and individuals, having raised the profile of a sensitive issue many years before others felt empowered enough to make a stand.

Sandra said: “I am thrilled to be a finalist for the RBHA, as it's an international honour recognising those tackling some very hard global issues. While it is a personal award, it's also a tribute to the fantastic team behind me at the charity I set up to deal with child sexual abuse.

"It is a widespread problem that causes more pain and misery in people's lives than we can ever imagine."

Anna Ferrer was born in Essex and has worked in India since the mid-1960s. She set up the Rural Development Trust (RDT) with her husband, Vicente Ferrer, with a particular focus on women’s rights.

RDT now impacts the lives of 3.6 million people in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. 

Since 1969, RDT has been responsible for establishing four major hospitals, six rural clinics, two mobile clinics and other special-care centres that administer treatment for basic to advanced ailments and infectious diseases. 

Anna said: “I feel extremely happy about being one the three finalists of the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award.

"This is a respected and renowned award given after a great poet who was socially very progressive. At a personal level, I feel very moved because it is the first time I have received such recognition in my native country."

The winner of the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award will be announced at the awards ceremony on Wednesday, January 24 at Burns Cottage.

As well as the RBHA 2018 title, winners receive  £1,800 – a sum which signifies the year of the Bard's birth and the coinage then in circulation.