Achieving my gold DofE is one of my proudest accomplishments from school. It built my confidence and is still something I look back on fondly.

There wasn’t enough interest in our school for the gold award so a friend and I decided to do it independently. We found a centre in France and tagged along with another school for our practise expedition. For our real one the centre put is in contact with another 4 people who were by themselves. I loved the camaraderie of us all undertaking it together and learning to get on with new people so quickly and under quite extreme conditions! This is something that has definitely helped later on in life.

Through planning the routes, navigating and finding water, the award taught me life skills that you rarely get elsewhere. I will be forever grateful for the memories and confidence boost this experience gave me.

My friend and I still share stories now, the highlight was waking up to goats outside our tent!

Thank you for creating this amazing award and showing that volunteering, new skills and pushing your limits on the expedition are valuable and to be recognised.