Prince Philip came to an event ( I think it was in Greenwich ) to talk about the DofE award scheme. I was about 15 and was disappointed to learn I was too young to join. I wasn’t the tallest at that age and I suppose that’s why he spotted me in the crowd. I remember he towered above me, asked my name and I asked when the award would be for my age group. I said I had just received my Chief Scouts Award and he smiled and said something like “you’re young and very small to be a Chief Scout” at which we all laughed “ ... and the scouts are great so you’re on the right course already, keep going”. Maybe by implication he was saying you don’t need the DofE? Today I hear about his collaborative skills so maybe he wasn’t into poaching from other organisations aiming to do the same thing.

I wasn’t smart enough to think anything more of it at the time and was too young and inexperienced anyway. Since then I went on to have a successful international career and no doubt in a large part due to my years off ‘life education’ in the Scouts.

But over 40 years on I wonder how much of an influence that meeting was into what I do now in helping young people develop soft skills and a can do attitude.

As I watched the many insights on the BBC into HRH Prince Philip’s past I was also surprised and intrigued to learn of the growing pains of the DofE Scheme in the early years. How Education felt challenged and saw the DofE as competition when in reality it was and still is complimentary to any education system. It seems in over 60 years the educationalists haven’t changed or learned as history is repeating itself from my experiences in Your Passport2Grow (www.yp2grow.com). The difference being the Duke made the DofE scheme work in the UK whilst I gave up the fight here and went to launch YP2G in Pakistan.

I may not have been a DofE Award graduate, but am an avid supporter and hope to help it grow wherever YP2G takes me.