Hello my friends!
A couple of weeks ago I got a letter in
the post stating that I had been nominated for a prize at the annual Youth
Achievement Awards! These awards are to recognise the commitment, courage and
strength that young people have shown in continuing or aiming to continue their
education whilst undergoing treatment at the Royal Marsden Hospital. The
exciting evening was going to consist of drinks, dinner, live jazz music and
inspirational speeches to accompany the ceremony.
As you can see from the invite, the event says dress code ‘eveningwear/black tie optional’ and this my friends gave me an extra excuse to go all out there and dress all pretty and lady like for this event *and if you know me well, I loooove wearing dresses' so I was so excited for this event! And to top it off it would be the first dressy up event I have been to for a while due to being in hospital for so long, so I was so looking forward to this! J
This is the outfit I decided
to wear to the event-
Sliver cut out leaf station
rope necklace and elaborate earrings from accessorise
Red wedged heels which had
ribbon that tied around my ankles
The evening started at 7pm
with arrival drinks and with music by Jazz and Dave, which I must say played
amazingly well, loved all of the music! And we were welcomed in by a speech
from Adam Briki.
The programme of events went
like this-
Presentation
of awards
‘Phenomenal potential’
Awards - Guest speaker: Ross Hutchins (retired professional tennis player for
England)
‘Sensational success’ Awards
- Guest speaker: Gordon Ironside (chair of Sutton Tuition and Reintegration
Service Management Committee and Headmaster at Sutton Grammar School)
‘Exceptional endeavour’
Awards
Buffet
Dinner
‘Astonishing achievement’
Awards – guest speaker: Dr Julia Chisholm (Head of the Oak Centre for Children
and Young People and Consultant Paediatric Oncologist)
‘Artistic excellence’ Award
‘Outstanding contribution’
Award
Tea and
coffee
The first award I received
was ‘Phenomenal potential’ Award, this
award was given to the young people whose education got disturbed due to
treatment but have now returned back to
their education to studying their GCSE’s, A-levels or University courses. I
returned back to school in September to carrying on my A-levels, which I was
overjoyed about as I love school and missed my friends and teachers lots.
The next award I got, shocked me the
most! As this year, there were two new awards at the Youth Achievement Awards.
The first one was in the name of Ayesha Bhangra for ‘Artistic excellence’ and the second was in the name of Ben for ‘Outstanding contribution’. These awards are for doing charity work while
in treatment, and the special awards are named after Benjamin Bland and Ayesha
Rayatt, who sadly lost their battle this year. Due to the award being named
after them, the families got to pick the winner of their daughter/son awards.
Once I heard ‘Arabella Reyes’ being called out for the ‘Artistic excellence’ award I was shocked, I couldn’t believe I had been nominated for this award! I was up against a group of people who had produced and filmed a song together for the Teenage Cancer Trust, while I was nominated due to funding raising by making bracelets while undergoing my transplant to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Once I heard my name being called again for the second time, I was extremely shocked, then when realisation kicked in I couldn’t stop smiling Jnot just because I had won, but because the family of Ayesha had picked me to have this award! I felt so honoured to be able to take this award in her name and to be the first person to receive this award. I was able to meet her family and thank them for picking me as the winner; they were the sweetest family to speak to and I would like to say a massive thank you to them again! I also received £20 in iTunes vouchers which was lovely of CLIC Sargent, thank you! As well, once I received my award in front of everyone I looked over at my mum, which didn’t help as she was crying with happiness *bless her* and my aunty was smiling away J plus I felt extra special as only two people got two awards and I was one of them
J
Overall, I had such an amazing evening and was so happy that I was able to take part, it was so nice to catch up with fellow patients and see how well they look now, everyone also looked stunning all dressed up and glamorous! I would like the say thank you to CLIC Sargent and STARS (Sutton Tuition and Reintegration service) for organising such a lovely event and just an overall great evening J
Arabella ♥
