Michael Buttler from Frensham Pond Sailability sent us this lovely profile:
Lucy is an inspiring young person. She has been helping the youngsters at Frensham Pond Sailability for three years and has recently won the Surrey Sports Council Young Volunteer of the Year Award.
She is modest about her achievement and says it is the first sporting award she has ever won. She started volunteering as part of her Duke Of Edinburgh Gold Award and is full of enthusiasm for how much she enjoys it. Helping at Sailability has brought her into contact with young people with disabilities and she finds that being able to see the world as they see it helps to put her own life into perspective. Sailability has also given her an opportunity to enjoy her own sailing (she has been sailing since the age of 10) and to make new friends. It is something she would strongly recommend to other young people. In 2016 Lucy qualified as an RYA Dinghy Instructor and has taken a lead coaching role with the regular Saturday Sailability Youth Group sessions.
Lucy is 17 years old and is in the first year of the Sixth Form at Farnborough Hill. She is keen on science and engineering and also has some other strings to her bow – she plays violin in the school orchestra and helps make costumes for the school’s dramatic productions.
When Frensham Pond Sailability won the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2016, Lucy was one of the young volunteers chosen to receive the Award from the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey (pictured above, Lucy is on the left) . Asked about her feelings about her latest award she said that she felt she was receiving it on behalf of all the volunteers at Sailability.
