Lesley Gill
Over the years I have been a participant, parent of participant, Award scheme leader and Adviser for the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, laterly within scouting. I’ve been proud to bring the award scheme to our community and support so many of Fillongley Explorers and others in Coventry Scouts through their awards, and seen how it has helped change and better their lives.
As a participant through my school in Greater London in the 1980s I developed some existing skills plus learnt new ones. Physical included tennis, squash and probably more tennis, Volunteering was visiting at a care home, a St John’s First Aid qualification (starting a life long love of first aid and the importance of learning these basic life saving skills), and running a DofE scheme as a Young Leader at the local Sea Cadets. Skills included Bassoon, sewing and dressmaking, and mountain leadership training. My real love though were the expeditions. Bronze took place in Edale with school friends under the guidance of our Chemistry and Physics teachers. 3 day Silver was in the New Forest, when I walked with 3 others from the Isle of Wight starting on 27th December in the days when expeditions weren’t restricted to March – December. I struggled to find a gold expedition team also, so with 1 other person from school, we recruited a team from Music School friends, LA open DofE contacts, and including the maths teacher’s daughter, which had distinct advantages when trying to find supervision from school (and a minibus) to take us to the Lake District for 10 days during the school summer holidays !
In 1989, I have very vivid memories of receiving my Gold Award from the Duke of Edinburgh in the throne room at St James Palace. 30 years later our daughter received her Duke of Edinburgh Gold from the Earl of Wessex in the same room! Our oldest son is a Gold holder and the younger soon to complete.
As a participant through my school in Greater London in the 1980s I developed some existing skills plus learnt new ones. Physical included tennis, squash and probably more tennis, Volunteering was visiting at a care home, a St John’s First Aid qualification (starting a life long love of first aid and the importance of learning these basic life saving skills), and running a DofE scheme as a Young Leader at the local Sea Cadets. Skills included Bassoon, sewing and dressmaking, and mountain leadership training. My real love though were the expeditions. Bronze took place in Edale with school friends under the guidance of our Chemistry and Physics teachers. 3 day Silver was in the New Forest, when I walked with 3 others from the Isle of Wight starting on 27th December in the days when expeditions weren’t restricted to March – December. I struggled to find a gold expedition team also, so with 1 other person from school, we recruited a team from Music School friends, LA open DofE contacts, and including the maths teacher’s daughter, which had distinct advantages when trying to find supervision from school (and a minibus) to take us to the Lake District for 10 days during the school summer holidays !
In 1989, I have very vivid memories of receiving my Gold Award from the Duke of Edinburgh in the throne room at St James Palace. 30 years later our daughter received her Duke of Edinburgh Gold from the Earl of Wessex in the same room! Our oldest son is a Gold holder and the younger soon to complete.
