After 24 years service to the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, teaching young people the skills to undertake their Bronze and Silver levels of the Award, I was kindly nominated by my Operations Manager Mr Rob Gill, to attend Buckingham Palace's Gold Award Garden Party on Monday May 13th 2024.  This was an amazing honour and something I never expected.

I received my invitation from HRH The Duke of Edinburgh Edward Windsor, to attend in the festivities and celebrations of the young people who had completed their DofE Gold Award as well as listening to some amazing inspirational speakers, including Harry Judd, Astronaut Tim Peake and a young lady by the name of Hafwen who spoke about achieving her Bronze, Silver and Gold awards which was hugely inspiring. Hafwen spoke about the difficulties she faced daily as a young deaf woman from a small town in Wales but overcame all the obstacles and doubters, and did it anyway.

The most surreal thing was that I was sitting in the sunshine with my Buckingham Palace Afternoon Tea and Lemon fairy cake thinking

 'I'm sitting in the King's garden, listening to his brass band all because I'm doing something I love really well.' How lucky am I?