Laura lands top award

3:58pm Monday 24th March 2008

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AN extraordinary medical student with a passion for improving children's lives has received an award in recognition of her work.

Globetrotter Laura Waterman, 19, from Newgate Street near Brookmans Park, scooped top prize at the Young Person of the Year Award at the East and North Herts heat of the competition last week.

Judges of the award, designed to promote inspiring work carried out by ten to 25 year olds, were staggered at the serial volunteering undertaken with such passion by the teenager.

Laura said: "When I was really young I wanted to work in an orphanage but my mum told me they had all been closed down, so that was the end of that dream.

"My motivation is the unfairness of some things in the world and there are so many children who really need someone to talk to."

Laura started her volunteering at 14, regularly visiting her local old people's home.

At 15 she became a weekly helper at ActOne ArtsBase, a theatre company in Welwyn Garden City for young people with and without disabilities - it was her manager who nominated Laura for the award.

But she had always hoped she could work in an orphanage and finally when she turned 16 she was allowed to travel to Romania with the Lighthouse International Ministries, and has been back twice since.

After completing her A-levels Laura took a gap year and spent five months in Ecuador helping street children, as well as taking part in around ten other projects, including giving first aid to homeless people at Christmas.

The teenager is close to finishing her first year at Imperial College, London, where she will train for six years to become a doctor.

She aims to work helping victims of natural disasters and in war zones.

On top of all that, she has raised £7,000 for Romanian orphanges through organising community events.

Judges, who praised her as "a truly outstanding example of dedication", awarded her a cash prize of £2,000, of which she gave £500 each to Romanian Relief and ActOne ArtsBase.