Compassion of the
Diana championed a host of good causes and today – the 20th anniversary of her death – it is clear that Princes William and Harry have taken on their mother’s mantle
Daily Express Thursday August 31 2017
WITH every passing year Diana, Princess of Wales retreats further into history. The clothes and hairstyles that were once so fashionable now look rather dated, while an entire generation has grown up since her death 20 years ago today.
Frozen in time she’s the tragic Princess whose fairytale marriage to her prince charming turned sour. But it is a measure of the impact she made in a life cut tragically short that, while 22 million of us tuned in to watch her walk down the aisle in 1981, no fewer than 32 million watched her funeral.
In life and death she inspired devotion around the world and two decades on it is clear that the legacy of a woman who towered over the 20th century and “had the power to light up a room” endures.
In her pomp Diana was a patron of countless charities. Her name on the masthead was a guarantee of a huge rise in awareness and organisations clamoured for her attention.
Knowing her patronage was priceles, she was discerning in her choice of causes to champion and more often than not opted for those that were not trendy. She helped change attitudes towards HIV and Aids, for example, at a time when many were turning a blind eye to a problem that was too often dismissed as a “gay plague”.
And who can forget the day the Princess walked through a minefield in Angola, or the time she held out her bare hands to take those of leprosy sufferers to shatter myths about the disease?
How London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, one of her favourite causes but currently beset by controversy over its handling of the Charlie Gard case, could do with Diana’s influence now.
YET today there is just one organisation in the world that officially carries her name. The Diana Award was founded with the blessing of her sons in 1999 to create a lasting memorial to the Princess. Its aim is to encourage in young people the qualities that Diana represented in her lifetime.
The charity runs development programmes and anti-bullying campaigns and the Diana Award’s National Kindness Day was held earlier this year to promote random acts of generosity, such as buying a coffee for a stranger or helping a neighbour.
So who better to comment on Diana’s legacy than Tessy Ojo, the charity’s chief executive? “Diana championed young people and that’s part of her legacy that we hold dear,” she says. “She also spoke out for victims and attempted to break down stigmas.
“Although William and Harry don’t have official titles with the charity they’ve been involved more or less from the start. At one of our events they said, ‘Thank you for putting our mother’s name to such good use.’ They are incredibly supportive of what we are doing.”
So far 47,000 awards have been handed out worldwide and this year, to mark the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death, sees the launch of a project to recognise leadership among young people. The Legacy Award will run for 10 years.
“Helping people in need is a good and essential part of my life,” Diana once said. “A kind of destiny.”
Tessy adds: “One of our messages is that we can all try to be like Diana. She was deservedly known as the People’s Princess and we want a whole new generation of people to carry on her work to change world for the better.”
According to the charity leader, Diana deserves to stand alongside other great influential figures from history, including President John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King, who were also cut down in their prime.
For those of us who recall her shocking death, the moment we discovered that Diana was dead is forever etched on our minds. Yet even for young people, who were born after Diana’s death aged 36, she can also be important.
“Older people remember Diana because she shook our world,” says Tessy. “But beyond that I think she became an icon for future generations. We know that Diana’s qualities are still relevant for young people, the