Chigwell young person shares DofE story with HRH The Duke of Edinburgh

Hosted by The Duke as Patron of the DofE charity, Folusho, 22, joined thousands of young people and their loved ones from across the UK for a festival-style celebration at Buckingham Palace Garden on Friday 10 May.

The celebration was one of four taking place over two days at the Palace, recognising over 8,000 young people who have shown extraordinary perseverance, creativity and resilience to complete their Gold DofE in schools, community organisations, youth groups and workplaces, all over the UK.

The celebration saw HRH The Duke of Edinburgh – who received his own Gold Award from his father Prince Philip at nearby St James’s Palace in 1986 – congratulate attendees in a speech from the Palace’s West Terrace.

Folusho, who did her DofE with Girlguiding UK, was one of just a handful of young people to personally speak to The Duke following his speech.

During the exchange, Folusho told The Duke that the Volunteering section of her DofE had the most impact on her.

She said: “I volunteered as assistant leader with my Girlguiding group and that really encouraged me to pursue a career in child psychology. I’m graduating this year.” To which he replied, “Oh fantastic. That’s brilliant”.

After the event, Folusho, who is also a DofE Youth Ambassador, said: “Meeting The Duke was a privilege and a blessing. I really enjoyed his humour and his charisma, and having the opportunity to talk to him about my plans for the future.”

Folusho has pushed herself out of her comfort zone and through her DofE, has discovered what she can do. Folusho joined her school’s rounders club at Bronze and learnt to play tennis at Silver, and the more she played, the better she got. Now, upon completion of her Gold, she became a member of her local dance group and performed at her first dance festival.

Folusho has found belief and confidence through DofE and wants to use her voice to empower other people to explore what they are capable of. In 2023 Folusho became a UK Youth Ambassador, and during this time has been involved in a number of projects to enable her to do that - she has also represented DofE UK at the European Youth Parliament.

Buckingham Palace Garden had been transformed into a festival-style celebration for young people and their loved ones, with giant deckchairs, bunting and garden games and activities.

Attendees had the chance to hear from famous DofE Award holders and other inspiring speakers, with actor Jason Watkins, Olympian and Rugby World Cup winner Heather Fisher, Heartstopper star Tobie Donovan, racing driver Billy Monger and his sister Bonny, and broadcaster and travel writer Ash Bhardwaj, speaking at stages throughout the garden.

Vick Hope, herself a Silver DofE Award holder, delivered an inspiring speech. Remembering her DofE practice expedition, Vick Hope said: "Our feet were blistered, and our backs were aching. My lovely grandad had leant me his sleeping bag from his Navy days, it was about 100 years old and kept neither the heat in nor the cold out, but somehow, we persisted, and had a good laugh along the way.

“DofE showed me that I possessed not only the resilience to overcome challenges, but the ability to find joy in them. When times are hard, I pride myself in finding the good bit. And then passing that on to the person next to me - or to the person who has just switched on their TV or radio. I ended up carving a career out of hopefully making people smile, whatever they're going through. DofE made me resourceful with my time and skills – sleeping on the floor of the BBC from midnight to 8am on my early reporting jobs? Light work after grandad's sleeping bag in the Yorkshire Dales! DofE fostered confidence in me, and it played a huge part in teaching me that in challenging times we must be there for one another.”

Vick also congratulated this year’s Gold Award achievers and encouraged them too:“As you step into the vast and exciting wilderness of the rest of your lives my advice to you is: don't let anyone dull your spark, hold on to your spirit of adventure, take action, if something doesn't seem right- question it.

"Don't be afraid of failure - it is an opportunity to learn and grow; keep recalibrating, you will change and change is good, your story will have many different chapters. When things get tough remember that you did this. You completed it. You could easily have not. But you did."

A Gold DofE programme is a non-competitive personal challenge, open to all young people, which takes a minimum of 12 months to complete. Young people build their own programmes with activities in five sections – Physical, Skills, Volunteering, a five-day Residential and a four-day Expedition.

Ruth Marvel, CEO of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, said: "These young people have achieved something exceptional, and it is wonderful to see them celebrating together, sharing their experiences and hearing their aspirations for the future. DofE is all about proving to yourself just what you are capable of, and the young people here have showed the world that their potential is limitless. I can’t wait to see what they go on to do next.

“As a charity, we’re working hard to give as many young people as possible the chance to have a DofE experience and we're delighted to announce that last year 330,948 young people started a DofE Award - another record-breaking year.

"This growth in participation shows just how much appetite there is amongst young people for enrichment and development opportunities beyond formal education and, together with our partners, we are determined to keep extending our reach until every young person has access to these types of life-changing experiences."

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award charity recently announced record-breaking annual statistics, with 545,910 young people actively taking part in 2023/24, over 330,984 young people starting their Award – and participants contributing an astonishing 4.7 million hours of Volunteering, equivalent to over £24 million in paid working hours.

As young people navigate the after-effects of the pandemic, access to opportunities for personal development beyond the classroom, like the DofE, are vital to help them have fun, discover new talents and passions, build their resilience and self-belief and give them skills employers value – like teamwork, problem-solving and leadership.