I personally never completed any of the Duke of Edinburgh awards. When I learned about the awards I was unfortunately too old to participate, but through this I learned that my mother had participated in the awards and gained the gold award. When I asked my Mum about her experience while completing the awards she ‘lit up’. My Mum is 63, 64 this year and I have never seen her so engaged in a single particular subject. I also found it amazing that after so many years she still remembers everything about each and every activity like it was only yesterday. I just regret that I hadn’t discovered these awards when I was younger and eligible to complete.