Lord-Lieutenant’s Awards for Young People 2025 winners announced

"It is always a privilege for me to host this annual awards event and share these extraordinary young people’s stories with our guests on the night. Their bravery, creativity, strength of spirit and selflessness is amazing."

Remarkable young people from Leicester and Leicestershire have been celebrated at an event at County Hall.

The four finalists shortlisted in each of the four categories were recognised for their dedication at the event on 7 May for going above and beyond to help others and for their remarkable outstanding personal achievements.

The category winners were:
Young Person of Courage - Joshua Bates, who attends Dorothy Goodman Sixth Form.

Young Volunteer – Grace Dhesi, who attends Leicester Grammar School.

Young Leader – Piper Sinclair who lives in Leicester.

Young Artist of the Year – Alex Budding, who attends De Lisle College.

These four young people were all considered for the overall award of the Lord-Lieutenant's Young Person of the Year which this year went to Grace Dhesi.

Lord-Lieutenant of Leicestershire, Mike Kapur OBE, CStJ, said: "Our city and county's young people continue to be an inspiration to us all.

“It is always a privilege for me to host this annual awards event and share these extraordinary young people’s stories with our guests on the night. Their bravery, creativity, strength of spirit and selflessness is amazing.

“As Lord-Lieutenant, I want to make sure that the individual talents and outstanding contributions of every one of our finalists are recognised and appreciated more widely within our communities.

“All too often, our young people go unnoticed by the wider community. I hope that these awards will continue to offer an opportunity to shine a spotlight on them. I urge anyone who knows a young person they think deserves recognition and encouragement for their endeavours to look out for details of my 2026 awards later in the year.”

Young Person of Courage - Joshua Bates, who attends Dorothy Goodman Sixth Form.

Using his new sewing machine, Joshua has learnt how to make hair scrunchies and sells them for £1-£2 each. During the COVID19 pandemic, Guide Dogs for the Blind Charity saw their donations reduce by around 50% and, wanting to do what he could to help, Josh started raising funds for them. He has now sold over 2000 scrunchies and has raised £2310 to date.

The process of making the scrunchies is difficult and time consuming, requiring precision in order to cut the material to the correct length, and finesse in changing and threading bobbins which is very fiddly work. This puts pressure on Joshua’s very poor sight, but he is determined to be a lifelong charity worker and is already planning new ways to raise funds for Guide Dogs for the Blind.

In the words of his nominator: ‘I feel Josh deserves recognition for his outstanding commitment to raising funds for others, overcoming adversity and learning new skills’

Young Artist of the Year – Alex Budding, who attends De Lisle College.

Alex was bitten by the musical theatre bug when she was just three and has been in every school performance available since, as well as numerous extra-curricular performances.

 Alex is currently preparing for theatre school auditions, and for NYMT’s 2025 season, and has recently achieved Distinction in her grade 8 musical theatre exam – her first exam of this nature. Her singing teacher has never before entered a young person for such a high grade exam without them having previous exam experience, but she thinks Alex has something special!

Her nominator said: ‘her drive to achieve her lifelong goal doesn’t stop her from being one of the kindest and most compassionate young people I know’.