GOLDEN girl Cheryl Cohen has been invited for tea with the Queen.

Cheryl (24), of The Drive, Prestwich will receive her Duke of Edinburgh Gold award at a Buckingham Palace garden party in July.

It has been ten years since Cheryl started out on the Duke of Edinburgh Awards when she was a pupil at King David High School.

She got her bronze and silver awards under the watchful eye of Simone Cohen at the Jewish Lads' and Girls' Brigade then took time off to concentrate on her studies at Bury College.

In 1999 she started to work towards her gold award but received a serious setback when her mentor, Simone, sadly died.

Said Cheryl: "I gave up again for a while, but then decided I should stick at it and see it through."

She will be receiving the coveted gold award in memory of Simone and two other special people in her life -- Simone's husband, David, who died a year later and her own grandfather, Harry Seagul, who always gave her masses of encouragment.

The Duke of Edinburgh awards help young people to develop new skills and encourages them to contribute to their community.

Cheryl has undertaken an amazing range of different projects to get her awards including working extensively with children with special needs, passing her driving test, conducting detailed research on disabled access to the Peak District . . . and line dancing with her mum Jocelyn!

And she's keen to encourage other people to get involved -- in fact, Cheryl was so inspired by Simone that she's taken over her role and is now helping other young people get involved.

Said Cheryl: "It's been tough at times, but my family have always encouraged me to see things through to the end."