I initially heard about The Duke of Edinburgh Award in my new Grammar school, having moved at the end of my first year due to my father’s job. I knew no one at my new school, but saw the DOFE award as a way to meet new people, build relationships, experience new adventures and give something to the community in which I lived. I completed my Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards with the aim of actually meeting the man who inspired me to do it in the first place. When faced with wind, rain and a team member with the beginnings of hypothermia, resilience must prevail; this is what completing the DOFE Award taught me. There is no going back, only taking the next step forward, no matter how hard that might be. I was most fortunate to meet the Duke of Edinburgh in 1992, to collect my Gold Award. The memory is a lasting one. He took great interest in our exploits and showed his witty side too! It is a memory I now share with my own children, in the hope they too might take part in the DOFE Award and carry forward The Duke of Edinburgh’s amazing legacy, for it has made me who I am today.