Doing the D of E Gold Award taught me several things. On Dartmoor I learnt how to push through the pain barrier when I sank knee deep in the bogs and camped out on Fox Tor Mires and had to put tablets in the water to create clean drinking water. Some of the group had to be airlifted out because of hypothermia. It was tough. But I also learnt about community service, could push myself in sport and develop my hobby of painting and drawing. It gave me the confidence to know I could achieve a goal and this definitely helped me later in academic life at Oxford university doing a doctorate where I had to put into practice all the skills of resilience and determination that I had learnt all those years ago on the bleak landscape of Dartmoor. I also appreciated the warmth and humour of the Duke of Edinburgh himself when I met him and then received the Gold Award at Buckingham Palace.