Ms Lewis was handed her award by Empire magazine editor-in-chief Terri White, at a ceremony in London billed as “shining a light on the outstanding efforts and achievements of the rising stars in consumer magazines and business media”.

Ms Lewis’s entry highlighted her crime investigation – in which she requested information from every police force in the UK to build a map of the crime taking places in pharmacies – and breaking the story that a government board was drafting proposals to hand technicians the ability to supervise prescription-only medicine supply.

C+D editor James Waldron said Ms Lewis’s win was “very well deserved”.

“As news editor, Grace has been without doubt one of the most influential figures in pharmacy, shaping the debate on key issues that matter to C+D’s readers, such as the supervision of pharmacies, the under-reported impact of crime, and the fall-out from the funding cuts, to name a few.”

“It was great to see Grace recognised alongside journalists from some of the biggest national magazine brands, and it shows how far she – and C+D – has come.”

See the full list of winners here.