After all these years, I am still proud of my Duke Of Edinburgh Gold Award. I registered in 1976 and finished in 1980. I have great memories of some of my activities, my ‘residential’ - sailing on the OYC’s Scott Bader Commonwealth from Essex to Ostend and Calais. We couldn’t mount an expedition because there were only two of us at gold level. Instead, I undertook a ‘worthwhile project’ at an Acorn Camp at Outridge Farm. We were the first team to go into an old cow byre and piggery and start its transformation into a National Trust Hostel. It was full of spiders and cobwebs and dirt, but we cleaned it up, cemented floors and lime washed walls. Hard work but with a fun group of people we hardly noticed it. I also spent nearly two years developing my bobbin lace making skills, culminating in my making a lace hanky for the Queen when I received my award. I had a nice letter of acknowledgement and congratulations on achieving my gold award. Interestingly, everyone has great memories of the activities, but what about writing all those reports for assessment? Delivering them was the difference between achievement or failure - not doing the activity itself. I think that aspect of tenacity and perseverance is often overlooked. Anyway, I can’t say that the award made any great changes to my life, I didn’t make any life long friends or change my career, but I still have that sense of achievement.