■ Young winners we can all look up to

Two young people from Cambourne were among those recognised at an annual awards ceremony.

Dozens of youngsters from across Cambridgeshire were celebrated at the Spicers Young People of the Year (Yopey) awards evening at the Cambridge Golf and Conference Centre in Hemingford Abbots.

It was a glamorous affair where 45 young people were feted by more than 200 adults, including Chief Constable Julie Spence and several mayors and council chairmen.

Two people from Cambourne were among 10 runners-up in the category for The Junior Young Person of the Year.

Sophie Littlechild of High Street, Cambourne, helps her parents care for her brothers, aged 7 and 12, who suffer from Fragile X syndrome.

Sophie, 16, said: “It’s 24/7. There are days where you emotionally break down – it’s non-stop, two steps forward, three steps back.

“And then I look at their faces and they look up to me with a smile, a sign that they need us. So I smile back and hold out my hand – I make sure I’m there for them.”

Sophie is giving half her prize money to the Fragile X Society for research.

Joshua Shepherd, 17, of Brookfield Way in Lower Cambourne, who has Asperger’s syndrome, has created a website for a youth football club and helped at a primary school and English language school.

Lauren Wright, 14, of Wisbech, who is turning her life around after a promise she made to her late mother, won the category.

All 10 runners-up were given £100 prizes for their good causes.

The ceremony's biggest winner – and Spicers Cambridgeshire Young Person of the Year – was Ed Williams, who won £1,000 including £500 for East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (Each).

The 23-year-old, of Verulam Way, Cambridge, swam the English Channel and Lake Windermere to raise £70,000 for Prostate Cancer Research and Each.

None of the finalists left empty-handed as £3,000 in prize money – generously added to by sponsors including Cambridge University Press, South Cambridgeshire District Council, CSR, Cambridge Building Society and Kimbolton-based EACS – was handed out.

At the end of the evening, during which 14 awe-inspiring and sometimes tearful stories were told about young people being “positive role models who give to others”, the 45 finalists were reminded they were “all winners”.