A Hertfordshire cadet is in line for a major national youth award. Poppy Davis, a member of 3 Coy, Beds & Herts Army Cadet Force, has earned a British Citizen Youth Award Medal of Honour for charity work, which she is due to receive next month.
The British Citizen Youth Award recognises under-18s across the UK for positive contributions to society, helping others and making a difference. This could be through community volunteering, charity work or simply making someone else’s life better through selfless acts of kindness.
Last year, Cdt Davis hiked the Pen Y Fan, the tallest mountain in south Wales as part of a group supporting Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson MBE, the most injured serviceman to survive Operation Herrick in Afghanistan, to scale the peak.
L/Bdr Parkinson, a double lower limb amputee who suffered more than 40 injuries from a landmine, made it to the Welsh mountain-top in his specially adapted wheelchair with support from Cdt Davis and her fellow volunteers.
WO2 L Baldwin from the Royal Army Physical Training Corps had planned the climb with the “Curtis Palmer Program” (CPP) charity. CPP supports police officers and others to follow the NHS “5 steps to mental wellbeing“, offering wellbeing courses and arranging expeditions for its service users.
As well as taking part in the physical challenge itself, Cdt Davis raised over £350 for CPP and another £450 for food bank charity the Trussell Trust through sponsorship for her mountain hike. She also collected more than 500 items of long-life food for the Trussell Trust to pass on to families in need.
Following such hard work, Commandant of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Army Cadet Force Col Andre Clark decided to nominate Cdt Davis for a British Citizen Youth Award with the agreement of her mum, Samantha.
Cdt Davis is set to receive her Medal of Honour in a ceremony at the Palace of Westminster at the end of October. It really should be a day to remember for the Hertfordshire cadet and her fellow award-winners, with an open-top bus “lap of honour” after the award presentation and lunch in the Houses of Parliament.
Everyone at East Anglia RFCA is delighted for her and proud of the dedication to helping others that Cdt Davis continues to show.
