A teenager who used her cancer treatment as a way to help others is among a group of young people recognised by the Duke of Edinburgh for their outstanding achievements.
For the second year running, the Duke of Edinburgh Award has celebrated some of the most inspiring people taking part in the scheme with its ‘This is Youth’ event. The outstanding achievements of some participants in the scheme is recognised and part of their celebration this year included tea at Buckingham Palace.
Among them is 14 year old Rosa Ross who continued with her DofE Award after being diagnosed with cancer and who used the scheme as a springboard to help others going through a similar experience.
The teenager, who is from Edinburgh, was recognised with the Boundary Breaker of the Year award. She was found to have stage four non-Hodgkin lymphoma several months after starting her Bronze award.
Rosa, a keen singer, then decided to add physiotherapy for a partially collapsed lung into her music lessons which contributed to the Skills section of her award. She then organised ward activities for other teenagers undergoing cancer treatment to bring them together and limit isolation and put this towards her Volunteering section.
Rosa was given the all clear in June 2024, after five months of intense treatment. She was able to share her story with the Duke and other winners at the Buckingham Palace party that Prince Edward threw for them all.
She said later that ”I had the mindset of, if I have to go through this horrible experience, there must be something good to come out of it. I could see how much going through cancer treatment absolutely sucks and if I could do anything to make it a tiny bit easier for the other young people, just a tiny smile or a laugh, I wanted to. It meant I could enjoy aspects of my time, while also helping others. ”
Also recognised was the Change Maker of the Year, Dora Abbi from Reading. The 17 year old used the Volunteering section of her award to organise care packages for patients at hospital and to support local care homes and food banks.
Trailblazer of the Year was 18 year old Harry Jones, from Great Missenden, who was recognised for being an outstanding leader for other pupils at his SEND school where he has overcome speech and language difficulties through his Duke of Edinburgh Award.
Innovator of the Year was 17 year old Josh Ellicott from Bodmin who designs recycled fabric clothing for himself and to support disabled participants in the DofE award.
There was also special recognition for a group of DofE participants from Derbyshire who helped save another participant’s life. Amelia, Emilia, Rosie, Clarissa and Bethan are all police cadets and were taking part in an expedition when another cadet, Teri, collapsed. They used their skills to keep her warm and check her breathing while arranging support through the emergency services.
After 27 years of helping young people with DofE expeditions, there was a special award for Lisa Waring from Stone in Staffordshire who has worked tirelessly to break down barriers and connect with participants so that they had the self belief needed to succeeed.
Also awarded was Daniel Evans-Tomkinson from Bolton who has spent years supporting DofE participants with special education needs and helping them develop life changing skills.
Also at the Palace were the famous faces who made up the judging panel for This is Youth. Judges this year included McFly star, Harry Judd, who was joined by him mum Emma, and Harry Potter star, Oliver Phelps, as well as one of the Gladiators, Jodie Ounsley, otherwise known as ‘Fury’.
The Duke of Edinburgh Award is undertaken by hundreds of thousands of young people every year. It’s open to anyone aged 14-24 and in 2023-24, those taking part gave over 4.7 million hours of their time to volunteer to help others.
