Our first in a series of interviews with people involved in the Award is with Danica Bonello Spiteri. Danica obtained her Gold Award when she was 18 years old and has gone on to graduate as a medical doctor and win Sportsperson of the year in 2010.
How did your involvement in the Award start?
My first knowledge of the Award came as recollections from my childhood. These were in the form of logbooks held my by father, also a Gold Award holder. I recall being awed by the photos, the story he wrote and the songs they had composed (and written down) in relationship to their award achievement. The story portrayed by the logbook is that the Gold Award has a sense of pride in its achievement. I yearned for this sense of pride, so in my early teen age years I started questioning my local girl guide community to attempt to start this award at the bronze stage, however this did not result in fruition due to various reasons.
This did not hinder me, and one of my choices of sixth form (college), was the fact that the Gold Award is offered with full support by the school staff. Adequate information, training and friends were provided, so I threw myself heart and soul into this Gold Award.
As an Award Holder, could you take us through what you did for the various sections and how you feel they have benefited you?
The community service part of it looked like a challenge. I decided that I will really and truly do something useful towards the community, and to choose something that I believed I can make a difference – even if it was just to one person.
I chose to attend a young children’s orphanage on a weekly basis. Initially I was taken aback at what I found, and was wondering what I was doing there. However, the children, aged between 3-12 years of age were all wide eyed and curious to know the new stranger that entered their territory. One girl, the eldest of them all was particular. For some unknown reason we struck a bond, and I found myself regularly assisting Connie with her homework. I never got to know her background story, and preferred to leave it that way. Our weekly meetings soon started to last longer in duration and I helped her to learn how to read, since despite being 12 years of age, she could barely master a few basic words. She started to look forward to our ‘reading time’ and gradually improved her skills. Once it was time for me to depart, I could see a sense of anger and hurt in her eyes. Her eyes spoke a story of betrayal and of being abandoned. This was not a new feeling to her, I could tell that. But our friendship developed over the time that I assisted her, and her smile soon started to flourish. I believe that Connie has given me much more than I have given her, yet people who have not ventured into this form of ‘voluntary work’ do not realise this.
My chosen sport was triathlon, which is three sports in one, namely swimming, cycling and running. I had been practising swimming and running separately for a while, before I had recently taken up triathlon as my sport, a short while prior to starting my Award. This gave me a focus and motivation to attempt to improve myself in triathlon. Throughout the award, my cycling ability improved, and this helped my overall triathlon capabilities. In fact, I was winning local races in Malta, and by the end of the year I was also voted the Maltese triathlete of the year. I also ventured to take part in my first triathlon abroad, namely the London Triathlon, which was in its inception stage at the time. I was just 17years of age, racing with another 200 women. I put in my best effort, despite the cold waters in the River Thames, Docklands area, whereas I was used to clear blue warm Mediterranean sea. I put in a solid performance and actually won my age group category of age 17-20yrs, and placed 13th overall. To top this achievement, I was also nominated for the Maltese Sportswoman of the Year Award for my sports achievement, and placed 2nd. This increased my satisfaction
Martial arts, namely spirit combat, was a pursuit of interest that I had taken up just prior to starting college. This had started as attending a self defence course over the summer period, but when the option of continuing martial arts training arose, I opted to learn this as my pursuit option. I was able to appreciate the different types of martial arts that existed and to understand how important self discipline and body control is. I was not interested in taking this art to a high level, but more as a means of understanding ‘harmony’ and the ‘yin-yang’.
The expeditions….what nostalgia! I can remember the initial expeditions and how taxing they were on our bodies, since we were not aware of what we would be facing, despite good training provided by the college. However, we soon learnt from our mistakes! I learnt about proper map reading, using a compass, getting bearings, pitching tents, despite the rain, having the correct equipment, packing a rucksack properly, setting up a fire, cooking outdoors and the list is endless! By the final expedition my team felt that we were experts. The teamwork and comrade was there, the training and fitness was done, now it was a matter of mental strength combined with physical stamina. Of course there were the lows and the highs, but the teamwork paid off brilliantly. Our final expedition took us around the coast of Malta, trying to pass by a number of historical towers of Malta that had been used by the Maltese in the 1500s to send off warning signs against invasion into our beloved island. This helped us combine the knowledge of history of our island, along with the expedition.
How did completing the Award make you feel?
The presentation of the Gold Award was an important day for me. I felt a great sense of pride and achievement in having worked hard to obtain the Award, and I felt that I was honoured by the fact that it was the Duke of Edinburgh himself, Prince Philip, that presented me with my Award. It was the 40th anniversary of the award in Malta. I was also proud to get my picture taken with my father, who was the inspiration behind my award. I was proud to be a second generation Gold Award holder. Prince Charles had presented my father with his award. I look forward to passing on this sense of achievement to my future offspring.
What are you doing now and are you still active within the Award?
Being labelled as a Gold Award holder does not mean that I closed the doors on the activities carried out during then award, but rather I see that as a stepping stone to the big world out there.
I have still been very active in adventure activities of all types, always embracing new ventures. I am still a keen triathlete, and have been racing locally as well as internationally since then, up till the present day. The year following my Award, I won the ‘sportsmanship award’ for offering my bicycle to a rival competitor during the national triathlon championship race, when her bicycle broke down. In 2010 I have also won the much coveted Sportswoman of the Year Award for my triathlon sporting achievements.
I am also pursuing a medical career, showing that studying does go hand in hand with sports, even at a high level. This involves a great amount of self discipline, a virtue that was instilled in me from a young age, and was nurtured through martial arts, a past-time I pursued for 7 years.
I am a medical doctor, and now also specialising in sports and exercise medicine, since I believe that this is lacking in my home country. I am currently in the UK, specialising in this sector, so that one day I can go back to Malta and take back the knowledge, to provide a service to many people who are unable to find this service at present.
One may be misled to think that I do not have enough time to cope with all the above. However, I still find time to help the community. On an annual basis I still take part in a major charity event. I often combine this with a sporting event, whilst collecting monies for the charity. I have collected funds for Inspire (that caters for disabled children in Malta), Lifecycle (that helps provide much needed services for patients on kidney machines), SPCA (to help animals). I have only been in the UK a few months, but I have already participated in a sporting event and collected funds for Action Medical Research, a charity that helps to fund research carried out on children’s illnesses. I also help a TV reality show in a voluntary basis, annually, by providing free medical services for a month, for participants travelling to far off destinations, who will be living a rough life, along with adventure challenges. This means utilising my annual leave to accompany this group.
In November, 2012, Malta will be hosting the International Forum 2012, and since i should be back on the island, i have volunteered to help on one of the sub committees set up to run the social events. I shall also be part of the prestigious London Olympics 2012, being shortlisted to provide medical services in the aspect of sports and exercise medicine.
How has the Award helped you in your life?
The Gold Award is a way of life, a way of learning and provides a solid ground on what youth should be believing in and working on in today’s life. If I was given the option of doing this Award again, I would definitely do it all over again. The final expedition was the hardest challenge for me, yet I found a mental toughness inside me that I did not know existed. This mental toughness got me to the end of the expedition. But that was not the be all and end all, but rather a door opened for me. It showed me that if I set my mind to achieving something, I can be sure that I will arrive there. It does not mean that the road to the end was straight and easy. Neither was our expedition straight and easy. We had hills to climb, rocks to clamber, tripped over my trek boots at times. I occasionally had to catch my breath, or sit down and rest. And this is the story of life. We have our trips, we have our falls, we have to stop to rest, or find a friend to lean on. But keeping focus on the light at the end of the tunnel, or the peak at the top of the hill is essential. And that is what makes mental toughness. If this Gold Award has a means of reaching out to the less fortunate people, the deprived, the poor and the lonely, I am sure that this will instil a sense of worthiness, pride, friendship in these people.
If this Award could be offered to young people like Connie’s background, the world will be a much better place. Connie will always have a special place in my heart, yet she will never realise the extent of what she has taught me. She has taught me to appreciate me for who I am, be thankful for my upbringing, the love that was shown to me. We often grumble and moan about not having the latest fashion fad or the nice car. Yet all Connie wanted was to be shown love, and not the abandonment she had experienced repeatedly despite her tender age.
So I have grown up appreciating what I have, embracing each day as if it was my last day, making the most of each opportunity that arises, since tomorrow I do not know what I will face. My health may be taken away at any instant – I see death in the face at work on a daily basis….
So today is my opportunity to thank the Gold Award Association. I thank the Gold Award for what it is and for what it stands for. I also thank anyone who has been or is involved in this Association, and I hope that there will always be such positivity in the Gold Award.
