#bTRU2u Blog

20 inspirational young people receive the Diana Legacy Award

On 18th May Trutex’s Chairman, David Manning and Managing Director Matthew Easter were honoured to attend a ceremony at St James Palace to mark 20 years since Princess Diana’s death, alongside Princes William and Harry.

The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry presented a new Legacy award to 20 exceptional young people from across the world who were recognised for their qualities of kindness, compassion and service.

Having worked in partnership with The Diana Awards since January 2017 in a number of projects to defeat bullying, Trutex’s Managing Director Matthew Easter commented “Attending this event was such an honour. We are very proud of our work with The Diana Award and have found great inspiration meeting these exceptional young people tonight. We shall continue our work with The Diana Award working together to tackle bullying and supporting our Anti-Bullying Ambassadors across the UK.”

The Diana Award is the longest running award for young people that is given through a retrospective nomination process only. The nomination process is special as young people do not work towards the award, but demonstrate their suitability through their actions, without expectation of reward. Since 1999, The Diana Award has recognised over 47,000 young people from across the globe, aged 9-18 who are selflessly transforming the lives of others. Like Princess Diana, they are humanitarians, campaigners, mentors, fundraisers – united by the moral values she governed her life by.

This year, to celebrate Diana’s legacy in the 20th Anniversary year, and to inspire a new generation of young people to serve their communities, The Legacy Award was launched. The Award celebrates the achievements of 20 outstanding young leaders, visionaries and role models from across the world who have demonstrated their ability to inspire and mobilise new generations to serve their communities.

Amongst the winners was 9 year old Jaylen from the USA, who after being bullied for having Tourette syndrome and autism, has gone on to speak to over 185,000 students across 20 states to encourage them to practise tolerance and encourage self-worth. Jaylen has also devised the ‘Bully Free Schools Ambassadors Club’ curriculum, a step by step initiative schools can run to raise awareness and foster positive action, which has been implemented in schools across the world.

As well as receiving Legacy Awards the winners will also have access to a unique Development Programme which will provide them with the opportunity to enhance their skills in leadership, community, social entrepreneurship and technology for good. We would like to congratulate all of the winners for their incredible accomplishments.