A SCOUT leader from Stratton St Margaret was awarded a Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday.

Tom Dent of the1st Blunsdon Scouts attended a presentation from adventurer and TV presenter Leon McCarron and HRH Prince Edward, the Duke of Wessex before Leon presented him with a certificate to acknowledge his impressive achievement.

The 20-year-old was thrilled that he was one of the group of 50 Scouts who got the chance to go to the palace.

He said: "It was absolutely fantastic, we went through the front gate then around the side of the palace to the beautiful gardens and were allowed to explore for an hour before the presentation.

"It was quite nerve-wracking to meet royalty but Prince Edward's a lovely guy, he's really charismatic and so interested in our stories and what we'd done.

"Meeting Leon was great, he's circled the globe twice, he spoke to us about what we can do to represent the Duke of Edinburgh and help others."

Tom worked hard to meet the requirements for the award, which included a year and a half of volunteer work, learning a new skill, doing a physical challenge for six months, and going on a four-day expedition.

He has volunteered for the North Swindon Scouting network for two years and used that for the volunteering requirement, took driving lessons and learned software development, and ran every day for six months to get fit in preparation for his expedition to the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland.

Tom added: "The expedition was really exciting and really fun, everyone should do it, it's a great experience."

He visited Windsor Castle last month for the Queen's Scout Award presentation, where he met Bear Grylls and HRH Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent.

The Scout Award is the highest award for scouts and its requirements are the same as the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award with a few scout-specific extras, so Tom worked on achieving both concurrently during the same time period.

He attended the Windsor Castle presentation with his parents and took his mum with him to the palace as he was only allowed one guest for the Duke of Edinburgh ceremony.

Tom added: "My family were all really proud of me, my mum loved going to the palace, she was over the moon.

"It was a really good way to end the whole process.

"I'm going to keep on volunteering with the Scouts as a leader and teach other young people the skills I've learned."