Volunteer Tom crowned Coronation Champion

A former policing student has been chosen as one of the nation’s Coronation Champions as part of an official Coronation project organised by the Royal Voluntary Service. Almost 5,000 nominations were received in total for the awards and Gateshead College’s former student Tom Jackson is one of 500 outstanding volunteers to be chosen as the nation’s Coronation Champions.

Tom, 19, was nominated for the award by NCS (National Citizen Service), for his work in running a school uniform donation project that directly helped over 500 families across Gateshead during the pandemic and cost of living crisis.

As a Coronation Champion Tom will receive a specially designed, official Coronation Champions pin and a certificate signed by His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Queen Consort. Tom also attended a Coronation Garden Party at Buckingham Palace alongside The King and members of the Royal Family.

Commenting on becoming a Coronation Champion, Tom said: “Words cannot describe how joyous and proud I am to have won a Coronation award. It’s such an honour to be representing NCS and just amazing to see how much of an impact our project had.

“This project helped hundreds of people and this award wouldn’t have been possible without the help of my team and my community. NCS has played such a huge part in my journey in life and I am so proud of the work we have accomplished.”

Tom, who is now one year into a professional policing and law enforcement degree at Northumbria University, originally set up the Gateshead Uniform Donation project when he was 16 and volunteered as part of an NCS experience.

What started as an idea to run a weeklong project turned into a summer-long effort which saw Tom and his team help over 500 families with a full school uniform. He then continued the project the following summer as well as launching a similar scheme during the winter collecting coats and warm clothing for homeless people.

Jonny Marshall, of NCS Trust, said: “It was a real pleasure to nominate Tom as a Coronation Champion and he should be incredibly proud of his achievements. His selfless actions have made a huge difference to his local community but also enabled him to build on his own strengths and experiences.”