Joshua Oates and five other youngsters we all nominated for the annual Children of Courage awards organised by the Rotary Club of Grantham Kesteven.
The aim of the annual awards is to showcase inspirational young people who have been nominated by their school or College. This year’s awards were held at the Urban Hotel in Grantham on Wednesday 13 March where the nominees and their families were all treated to a lunch and met by special guest Paralympic track and field athlete Sam Ruddock.
Joshua Oates who study’s Skills for Work here at Grantham College was nominated by Learning Support Assistant, Lisa Gerassimov. Josh suffers from a lifelong progressive condition called Cone Dystrophy, leaving him with only 5% central vision.
Lisa comments why she nominated Josh for the award: “Joshua is such a hardworking, polite and active young man but he has always found education to be an uphill struggle. Josh often finds it quite tricky to keep up with his peers, simple things like reading a book, sitting an exam, writing and even getting around the College can be a challenge.
“Despite his ongoing health conditions, Josh continues to participate fully in college and his local community. He never complains or even mentions his disability, he is a strong believer in trying everything and never giving up!
“His behaviour at the College is an example to us all. He has such a great sense of humour and is hugely popular in his class. Josh has been nominated not only be me but the whole of the Learning Development team for not ever allowing his lifelong progressive condition to dominate his life and prove to us all that whatever life throws at us not to moan about it but make the best of it. He is truly a shining example and a lesson for all of us.”
Josh now hopes to progress to join mainstream students in a sports course starting in September.
A huge congratulations to all of the nominees; you are all true inspirations to us all! For more information, head over to http://www.rotary-ribi.org/clubs/homepage.php?ClubID=415.
- Wednesday 13 March, 2019
- News Story
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.