Top Girlguiding award for engineering apprentice

Danielle Watson, now 27, became a Guide when she was 11

An engineering apprentice who has been involved with Girlguiding for more than half her life is to receive the charity's top award.

Danielle Watson, 27, has earned the Queen's Guide award by doing various personal challenges and giving back to guiding.

She joined as a Guide when she was 11 before progressing through to Rangers at the age of 14.

She has been a leader at 5th Buxton Guides, where she herself was once a member, for the last seven years.

She is also a leader at Buxton District Rangers, Girlguiding’s county walking advisor, and county Duke of Edinburgh Award advisor for Derbyshire.

“Girlguiding is a massive part of my life," she said.

"It takes up a lot of my spare time, but it never feels like a chore. I’ve made so many friends and met so many like-minded people through it."

Autism diagnosis

Danielle, who is from Buxton, will receive the award on 29 September at the Girlguiding Celebrates event in London.

She said it particularly meant a lot to her because she was diagnosed with autism in 2020, at the age of 23.

“It’s nice to have the award but it’s about so much more than that for me," she said.

“I spend a lot of time masking my autism which is very tiring and makes social communication a lot trickier.

“It pushed me out of my comfort zone to do different things and it made me realise I could do things that I didn’t think I could do."

It took Danielle three years to complete the Queen’s Guide award.

As part of it, she created a pack to help challenge gender stereotypes around STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and encourage girls to consider engineering as a potential future career.

Danielle, who is in the final stages of a five-year radiotherapy engineering apprenticeship, said it was "a subject very close to my heart".