Canon Young Champion of the Year

WINNER (Under 17s)

Bella Lack – Conservationist

Bella is a 17 year old conservationist using social media to educate and inspire in order to protect the natural world. She is an ambassador for the Born Free Foundation, the RSPCA and the Jane Goodall Institute.

Bella has helped set up Reserva: Youth Land Trust to fund entirely youth driven nature reserves across the globe, the first of which is in Ecuador. Having given a TedX talk in 2019 about the extinction crisis, she is using her voice to reach politicians and leaders across the globe. In addition, she has just completed filming of the feature length documentary ‘Animal’ (to be released in October) to help provide solutions to the the sixth mass extinction.

WINNER (Under 21s)

Nicole Fernandes da Silva: BIGKID Foundation

Under the theme ‘Through My Eyes’, Nicole took portraits of our young people, each one captioned with their thoughts on growing up in south London. Nicole regularly volunteers with BIGKID, supporting at youth club to develop more creative projects.

Nicole first came to BIGKID as an 11 year old in 2015. She would come along to Girls’ Football at Larkhall Park, but with limited interest in sports, she eventually stopped attending. Re-connecting with BIGKID in 2019, now as a 6th form A-level photography student, she was inspired to take part in our first art exhibition. Under the theme ‘Through My Eyes’, Nicole took a series of portraits of our young people, each one captioned with their thoughts on growing up in south London. Nicole now regularly volunteers, developing media content and supporting at youth club to develop creative projects.