Kate

This is a story noone is left to tell...
In the 70's Jean was told at a parents' evening that Jimmy, who struggled academically and was a feeble child, would never amount to anything. He got involved with the Scouts and, somewhere along the way, with the DofE programme. He worked through the Bronze and Silver awards and positively bloomed. He gained bulk, strength, confidence and knowhow to add to his already cheerful and generous nature. Needless to say he made loads of friends and was very popular. He became an accomplished leader of junior groups for outdoor adventures, went to work for British Telecom and was offered the chance to do a degree as part of their development scheme - so much for not 'amounting to anything'. Jimmy progressed to doing his Gold DofE and completed it, but tragically was killed in a climbing accident in Cornwall before he could collect it. Instead his mum, dad and grandpa went to St James's Palace for a posthumous award ceremony, where HRH Prince Philip took them into a separate room so that he could talk to them privately. Jimmy was 21 and his parents' only child. With the encouragement of the DofE programme he packed decades of life into a few years and lit up the world around him.
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