Although I haven't completed any of the awards because South Africa didn't have them, I was always interested in doing outdoor activities and participated in a thing called 'veld school.' However, as a teacher I became very involved with the award at the school I was working at, finally introducing caneoing for the silver expedition. My son completed both his silver and gold award and as a parent I feel very proud of his achievement. I take great delight in sharing with my students the value of the award and the feedback I get from them is that the camping on the expedition is the best part. I also took part in the Diamond Challenge Award and for this I went horse riding in Mongolia, raising money for the award and also RDA. This was a challenge where I was taken out of my comfort zone, just like I have asked many of my students to do on their expeditions. Many students and parents share with me when they have completed their Gold Award, which is a great achievement especially when it is completed after they have left school. In the future when starting the training for expeditions I will always have a photo of The Duke of Edinburgh and will talk to the students about his legacy and how he created this world wide award for young people.