The seed planted by the D of E Award for me was getting involved in tennis coaching and the grass-root cause of me becoming a community coach volunteer today. I had played tennis since I was 9 and belonged to a tennis club at 14 where I'd had group coaching with the club coach as a junior which was to be the starting point.
 
D of E motivated me to push myself out of my comfort zone and explore new interests and experiences. I decided for the Service section of the award to try sports volunteering and asked my coach if I could clock up my award hours helping in her junior group classes as a tennis assistant. Being allowed the opportunity to help the juniors with their tennis skills and games, proved it was something I was capable of doing and equally satisfying to give service to others whilst gaining new knowledge myself.

It would be after my Gold Award meeting with The Duke of Edinburgh in 2004, during university, that I would get involved with tennis coaching again with a new-born sports charity 'Tennis For Free' to offer free tennis coaching to children in my local community. Since 2005, I have volunteered with the Junior Coaching Team as a Community Coach helping to make tennis more accessible to juniors through the free coaching programme. Not only was I able to gain a tennis coaching qualification and meet the one-and-only Judy Murray! but also meet a community of like-minded and good-hearted people who shared their love of tennis and a common interest to make a positive impact by giving wholesome service to others. The seed of my tennis volunteering experience from the Duke of Edinburgh Award has also taken me beyond borders on overseas adventures - travelling to the USA to work as a tennis counsellor in a Girls Summer Camp and a 5-month Tennis Project in Ghana which led to my own charitable non-profit 'Africa Tennis Aid' donating tennis equipment to underprivileged African communities.