A GOLDEN girl met her historic counterparts after completing a royal award.

Youth worker Anna Maycock, from Dorchester, who has recently completed her Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) gold award, met Jean Coulter and Mary Shaw, who were the first women in Dorset to receive it in 1965.

Anna, aged 23, has just completed her gold DofE award with East Dorset Duke of Edinburgh Award Club, part of Dorset Youth Association.

She said: “It’s been really good, I’ve learnt so much right from the start.

“I’m waiting to hear back from Buckingham Palace to set the date so I can go and receive the award itself.

“I did the gold award with six other people I had never met before, so I’ve made some really good friends and learnt loads of new skills.

“I got a lot out of it and it looks great on your CV as well.

“It’s amazing seeing pictures of Mary and Jean when they did their expedition, it’s amazing to meet them and see what they did.”

Ms Shaw said the meeting had brought back fond memories.

She said: “It’s been absolutely brilliant meeting Anna, I’ve probably not thought about the DofE scheme for a little while but to see all these photographs has brought it all back.

“It’s really nice to hear Anna’s doing things and feeling the same that I did those years ago about the scheme, it’s brought back lots of happy memories.

“The things we did then have helped me for the rest of my life and I’m hoping that all the youngsters that are doing it now will find the same thing in years to come.”

Lorna Johnson, a Dorset Youth Association project worker, said: “We found out Jean and Mary were the first DofE winners from the county back in the 1960s so we tracked them down.

“It’s absolutely brilliant and a real bonus Anna could meet them as a member of the Dorset Youth Association network.”