The DofE award changed my life when I was 15 years old. I didn't have many friends or hobbies and had been interested in doing the award for some time. I found a local youth club that was taking part in the award and I've never looked back. I've made so many friends and gained so many experiences that I never would have had without the award, the youth club and the people I was able to surround myself with because of the award. I later went on to become a youth worker and gained my basic expedition leaders award, allowing me to deliver parts of the DofE award myself! I've had the most amazing experiences, such as taking part in my residential in the Lake District, pushing myself to do things that I never thought I would, I.e jumping off a cliff and wild camping. Some of my favourite memories were making up songs, getting everyone singing to keep us going, no matter how annoying I was and trying to spot our leaders everywhere we went.We laughed and we cried throughout the expeditions, we were huddled in eachothers tents, scared of the thunder and lightening, crawled up helvellyn gripping onto eachother for our lives because it was so windy, put suncream on only for it to rain and drip into my eyes, waded through knee deep mud and ate cold undercooked pasta because it was too rainy to cook. I wouldn't have changed any of this for the world and it has given me so much confidence to believe in myself, as well as an achievement of a lifetime! I've since gone on to work as an outdoor education tutor too!

We were called to our gold award presentation at St James'palace on March 22nd 2017, for it to be cancelled due to the Westminster Bridge attack. We finally made it to our presentation at Buckingham Palace Gardens on May 24th 2017 and had the honour of meeting Prince Phillip, who cheekily told our parents they weren't as intelligent as us because they hadn't done the award!