I hold both a bronze and a gold DofE award as those were the two awards my school ran. After completing my final bronze expedition I swore to never pick up a hiking bag again. When my teacher asked if I wanted to do the gold award I signed up right away.

Doing DofE has had such a positive impact on my life. As I went into year 12, I was constantly being asked which university I wanted to go to and being told I had to make a decision. It was really stressful because I had no idea. I didn't know what I wanted to study or where I wanted to go.

To complete gold DofE, you have to do a residential. You can do pretty much anything for this so I decided to do a nature based residential on the Isle of Arran in Scotland where we learned about the flora and fauna. It was absolutely amazing and solidified for me that I wanted to learn as much as I could about the natural environment.

I am now in the first year of my zoology degree at a university I love and, for the first time, I feel like my life has direction and purpose. I am really excited about where life might take me and I am so grateful to everyone who made it possible for me to do DofE. I would recommend it to everyone.