Teen wins Princess Diana award
Peterborough’s Faith Dickinson one of 20 youths from around the world receiving the inaugural legacy award
Faith Dickinson was one of 20 people from around the world to receive an inaugural legacy award in memory of the late Princess Diana in England on Thursday.
The Cuddles for Cancer creator was presented with the Diana Award by Prince William and Prince Harry at St. James Palace in London.
The award recognizes youth who’re making a difference in their communities through charitable initiatives.
Dickinson, 14, started Cuddles for Cancer five years ago. She makes fleece blankets for cancer patients, veterans and soldiers.
Since starting the initiative when she was nine, Faith has made more than 3,000 blankets, raised more than $30,000 to fund her charity and shipped blankets around the world.
The bubbly redhead and her parents flew into London last Wednesday morning, staying a week to travel the countryside after the ceremony.
Faith met Prince William and Prince Harry at the palace Thursday, where she was presented with the award.
“They were so nice and genuine,” said Faith of the princes.
She said she was surprised how much time the two princes spent mingling with everyone at the ceremony.
“They actually made the time to talk to everyone in the room,” Faith said.
The young teen said her parents had spoken to her about Diana’s humanitarian work well before Faith was announced as a recipient.
“She was so compassionate and kind and to be named as her legacy, it’s such an an honour,” said Faith, a Grade 9 student at Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School.
After spending time in London, Faith and her family visited Diana’s childhood home in Sandringham, England, and also stopped by her the late princess’s gravesite on the Althorp Estate in Northampton, England.
“It was so beautiful,” Faith said of Diana’s grave.
Although the freckled-faced teen was featured in magazine before getting the award, she was sworn to secrecy before receiving the honour.
Faith was also awarded the local United Way’s Scholfield Award of Community Distinction in April and won the Canadian Living Me to We Youth in Action Award in September 2015.
When she started Cuddles for Cancer in 2012, Faith said it was just meant to be a summer project.
And although it’s continued to grow over the years, she never imagined she’d one day be meeting royalty in a palace.
“I never thought it would be this big ... and it’s really cool,” she said.
Prince William said during the awards ceremony that his mother, the late Princess of Wales, “touched the lives of millions” during her life and still inspires “countless acts of compassion and bravery” two decades after her death in a car crash in France.