Young citizen nominee Luke Benjafield with his Olympic torch

South Woodford Torchbearer who helps air cadets nominated for Young Citizen award

by Alistair Kleebauer, Senior reporter Thursday, August 2, 2012
8:00 AM

A 20-year-old Olympic Torchbearer who is as happy piloting aircraft above the clouds as he is fundraising on solid ground is the latest nominee for the Recorder/Redbridge Rotary Club Young Citizen Award.

May and June winners announced

The winner of the Exchange Ilford-sponsored Recorder/Redbridge Rotary Club Young Citizen award for May is talented 15-year-old musician Akil Yearwood.

Akil, of Eastern Avenue, Redbridge, who developed Tourette’s syndrome after his grandfather died, has used music to motivate young people around him.

He was chosen by a panel of Eve Conway, district governor of Rotary International; Marc Myers, manager of Exchange Ilford and Chris Carter, editor of the Recorder.

And the June winner is Tarun Odedra, 10, of Ramsgill Drive, Newbury Park, who was nominated by his mum after he raised hundreds of pounds for charity.

The Gilbert Colvin Primary School pupil has done sponsored walks and recycling projects.

He has received two Blue Peter badges for his recycling work after designing a poster encouraging more people to recycle.

Both winners will receive a £40 voucher to spend at the Exchange Ilford retailer of their choice.

Luke Benjafield, 20, of Elmhurst Drive, South Woodford, who was the first person in Redbridge to carry the Flame on its route through the borough, is in the running for the Exchange Ilford-sponsored award.

The sales assistant, who dreams of a career with the RAF, devotes his spare time to helping young air cadets in Woodford Green gain valuable qualifications and Duke of Edinburgh Awards.

And with their help he raises money through bag-packing and collections for charities including Haven House Children’s Hospice, and the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal.

Luke was a cadet himself with the Wanstead and Woodford Squadron Air Training Corps in Finchingfield Avenue, Woodford Green, for seven years and now volunteers as a training officer.

He said: “You get to meet people you’d never meet and you stay friends with them forever. You don’t often get to go flying, gliding and shooting. I think it’s just an amazing thing to do.”

Along with younger cadets, Luke bag packs in supermarkets once or twice a month and off his own bat, has collected at Woodford and South Woodford stations for the poppy appeal.

Help for Heroes and the cadets have also benefited from his fundraising.

Two to three times a week he volunteers with the squadron and runs the training programme to help young people gain BTEC qualifications in aviation studies.

His time with the group has also taken him into the skies, piloting a Grob Tutor, the aircraft used to train RAF personnel and cadets get to fly in RAF Sea King helicopters, Hercules transport planes and with the Red Arrows if they are lucky.

He is still fielding questions and words of congratulations from friends, neighbours and “random people” on Facebook for his part in the Torch relay.

He said: “I thought it was brilliant, I was so overwhelmed, words can’t describe it.”