YOUNG people from Bournemouth have achieved Royal recognition after turning around their lives with help from the Prince’s Trust.

The Prince’s Trust and Samsung Celebrate Success Awards honoured a remarkable young businesswoman and a group who made a difference in their community.

Jemma Cooper, 25, won the RBS Enterprise Award at the ceremony in Bristol.

Jemma experienced a series of personal setbacks in early life, including losing her home when the family business failed, the separation of her parents and a miscarriage at university.

But after finishing her studies, she started a complementary therapies and beauty treatments business, HI Therapies, with the help of the Prince’s Trust.

Today, her award-wining company employs five people and she plans to expand it.

“I had always wanted to run my own company and had been saving money to help start it for years.

“I knew that ambition and money weren’t enough to make it a success, and when the banks refused to support me, I went to the Prince’s Trust,” she said.

The trust’s enterprise programme gave her a loan and the support of a mentor.

HI Therapies has already more than doubled its first year’s turnover and spawned a spin-off business, HI Therapies Events.

The awards ceremony also saw a group of seven young people form Bournemouth win the Trevor Osborne Group Community Impact Award.

The group were all long-term unemployed when they joined Team, a Prince’s Trust programme helping unemployed young people gain skills and experience.

Part of the programme is about helping others, and the group – Bournemouth Team 26 – transformed Rosebery Park Baptist Church Hall, used by their local Brownies.

They asked local businesses for donations and materials, spoke enthusiastically to the public about the project and raised £500 for the project.

Within two weeks, Team 26 had transformed the hall. The church was so impressed that it has offered the hall as a permanent space for future Prince’s Trust teams.

Sam Rees, from the group, said: “We are completely over the moon to win this award. It has been a wonderful experience and made all of our hard work worthwhile.”

Trust ambassador Dame Helen Mirren, who attended the Celebrate Success finals, said: “All of the young people nominated for Celebrate Success are truly inspirational. Their remarkable stories never fail to blow me away.”