Alana's story
Shared Lives
Alana has been with her Shared Lives carers, Roy and Lynda since she was 7. At first, Roy and Lynda were her foster parents, when Alana turned 18 they become her Shared Lives carers in September 2021.
Alana was recently awarded the Gold Duke of Edinburgh award!
The Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award is for young people 16+ who can gain essential skills and attributes for work and life such as resilience, problem-solving, team-working, communication and drive. There are three levels to the Duke of Edinburgh, bronze, silver and gold.
Alana's activities for the Duke of Edinburgh were: a 25K hike, canoeing, a night hike, rock climbing and abseiling, for her craft she practised her cooking and for her fitness activity she regularly went to the gym, she volunteered with the Brownies where she became a Brownie leader and she camped overnight with her companions cooking their own food in the wilderness.
To have been awarded a gold Duke of Edinburgh is an incredible achievement that would have taken dedication and impressive resilience.
Alana's Shared Lives carer Roy supported her throughout her journey to achieving this. Roy went above and beyond to support Alana, including finding enough other participants so there'd be enough people in her group to go for the gold Duke of Edinburgh, he also joined her on hikes and her other activities which he said was "a pleasure to do and he was proud to be part of it".
Alana's achievement is even more impressive because 3 years prior to starting her DoE Gold she had an operation on her back to fix a curvature in her spine. It took her 12 months to get back to normal.
Alana's is an inspirational story of what can be achieved with resilience and dedication.
Read more stories on our Ategi people page
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