Girls strike gold at St James's Palace

Arushi Jain, Laveeza Hameed, Kritika Yadav, Zainab Shahbaz and Safia Khan pose proudly having completed their final Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition

Five girls who completed their Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award with Rochdale Youth Service have been presented with their certificates by Prince Phillip during a ceremony at St James’s Palace in London.

Laveeza Hameed, 19, Kritika Yadav, 19, Arushi Jain, 20 and Safia Khan, 23, all from Rochdale, and Zainab Shahbaz, 19, from Bury, completed their Gold qualifying expedition in October 2013, enduring foul weather, injuries, high winds and persistent rain over four testing days in the Lake District.

Two years on, they were invited to the palace to receive their Gold Award from the Duke of Edinburgh, accompanied by their proud parents, Rochdale’s director of children’s services, Gail Hopper, and cabinet member for children’s services, Councillor Donna Martin. Youth workers and expedition leaders Diane Higgins and Jamshed Miah also joined the young people at the palace.

Kritika Yadav, who is now studying medicine at Imperial College London, said: “I began my DofE journey in Year 10 and started with the Bronze award. At that point it was just something that I was doing to put on my CV, never did I think I would enjoy it so much.

“The expeditions were some of the hardest times of my life, both mentally and physically, with many points where it felt very tempting to quit.

"However, I can’t even begin to put into words the pride and immense sense of achievement you get when you successfully finish your expedition and you’re on that minibus back home, or even when you get the opportunity to receive your award from the Duke of Edinburgh himself.

"To anyone thinking about doing DofE, I’d say go for it. I’ve learnt so much and made some friends for life through it.

"I also want to add how grateful I am to have been given the opportunity to complete my journey through Rochdale Council with the best expedition leaders anyone could ask for.”