I’m not putting it off any longer. I’m taking the DofE Diamond Challenge right now! Please sponsor me and help transform the lives of vulnerable young people. 

I have always wanted to give something back to DofE ever since I did my Gold Award 27 years ago and the Diamond Challenge seemed the obvious opportunity. However, this has been a particularly busy year for our family, so when I saw there was an extension of the deadline to 31st March 2017 as long as I register in 2016, I finally took the plunge!  In true DofE fashion I wanted to do combination of personal challenge and volunteering. I've always wanted to learn to ice skate so I will be taking lessons at Silver Blades, Altrincham and hope to achieve a Skate Excellence certificate before 31st March 2017. 

I've always been a keen supporter of environmental charities and I saw an advert for volunteers to help Woodland Trust with their Charter for Trees, Woods and People. I am running a Twitter campaign from November 2016 to February 2017 to encourage people to contribute their tree stories to TreeCharter.uk, which will be used to influence environmental policy in the UK with the launch of the Charter in November 2017, the 800th anniversary of the Charter of the Forest.

Please help me to reach my £60 target which will give disadvantaged and vulnerable young people the opportunity to benefit from the DofE.