It was a very excited but nervous 20 year old from Yorkshire along with her very proud parents who went to Buckingham Palace in May 1970 to recieve her Gold Award from the Duke, having previously completed Bronze and Silver levels too while at a boarding school in Kent for people with Cerebral Palsy, The requirements for the Awards were tailored to suit my/our individual abilities - abilities I didn't know I had until then. Abiding memories - The Gold Award Expedition -a mixed group of us camped on what was normally a daffodil bulb field in the Scilly Isles for a fortnight doing various projects, (mine was a history of the shipwrecks of the Islands) fortunately the weather was kind to us as I seemed to wake up each morning with my head out in the field from under the edge of the tent and we had only a cold water tap to wash with. No mod cons for us! Doing nutrition at Silver level and getting free samples from baby food manufacturers through the post, no such thing as plain packaging, the post was distributed in the school dining room and with teenage boys around imagine the comments! Spending time at home in the holidays helping out at a centre for children with Down's Syndrome and later for my Gold Award Service working for a week in the Medical Records Office at the hospital in Tunbridge Wells and staying in the Nurses Home, the first time I'd ever lived alone - that was a bit scary and lonely. I must not forget too the pleasure Mum and I had shopping for outfits suitable for a trip to the Palace, the invitation said 'hats and gloves must be worn' and needless to say it was the hats that caused us the biggest problem. I could go on but above all I think doing the Awards built on what the school was trying to achieve and taught us to be resilient, independent, shaped my thinking in adult life and showed that no matter how disabled a person is nothing is impossible with a nudge in the right direction. Thank you Prince Philip for making this possible.