HRH The Duke of Edinburgh left speechless by Salisbury teen as he shares his DofE story

Cameron Jacobs, 18 from Salisbury, in Wiltshire, left His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh momentarily speechless, recounting how he ran this year’s London Marathon barefoot. 

The Duke, who is Patron of the DofE charity, met Cameron at a Buckingham Palace celebration on Monday 12 May, which recognised his Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s (DofE) Award achievement.   

The celebration at Buckingham Palace was one of four taking place over two days in the Palace gardens, recognising over 8,000 young people who have shown extraordinary perseverance, creativity and resilience to complete their Gold DofE in schools, community organisations, youth groups and workplaces, all over the UK.  

Cameron, who has autism, ADHD and Tourette's Syndrome, achieved his DofE independently through DofE Direct.

He ran last month’s London Marathon barefoot and achieved The Guiness World Record for the Youngest Barefoot Marathon, crossing the line with his mum in four hours and 31 minutes.

As a result of his marathon efforts, Cameron, who ran for his Gold Physical, raised over £8,000 for charity and was one of just a handful of young people to personally speak to The Duke at the Gold Award celebration event. 

During the exchange, Cameron spoke to The Duke about his passion for long-distance running and music. Cameron said, “I did the London Marathon this year. I did it barefoot so I got the Guinness World Record for being the youngest person to have ever completed a marathon barefoot and actually for my DofE Physical section for Bronze, Silver and Gold, I’ve chosen running for all of it.” To which The Duke asked: “But not always barefoot?” 

Laughing, Cameron said: “No not always barefoot but one of the things I did when I was training for Gold was I did a 70km ultra marathon and fundraised over £2,000 and then the London Marathan this year was my barefoot challenge, and I raised over £8,000 for Orchestras for All." 

Surprised, The Duke said: “Oh so you’re a musician as well?” With Cameron confirming that music is his “other passion” and he chose music as his Skill for his Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards. 

“I play the trumpet and sing and in fact, with Gold, I passed my Grade eight with trumpet,” Cameron said.  

The Duke asked: “What do you like playing; are we talking classical music? Jazz?” To which Cameron responded, “probably jazz more for the trumpet and classical for the singing.” 

Just as The Duke was about to congratulate Cameron and say goodbye, he ask him which was the most difficult surface to run on during the marathon, Cameron said: “For the London Marathon I couldn’t have asked for better surfaces because in Salisbury, which is where I live and where I was training, some of the roads were a bit more like rough and actually it was really smooth and I genuinely couldn’t have asked better surfaces. Although the Lucozade section was quite sticky.” 

With everyone laughing, The Duke said: “Oh of course. The drink stations. That’s not so bad it’s the next bit where you start picking up all the grit off the road. Oh I can’t believe you did it. You’re absolutely mad!” 

For his Gold DofE, Cameron volunteered at a local primary school, often providing one-to-one support to other children with special needs. For his Skill section he progressed his trumpet playing and obtained his grade eight trumpet during this time. Running was his Physical activity chosen with the achieved goal of running a trail ultramarathon of 70km with his mum and raising £2500 for charity. 

Cameron is now at a mainstream 6th form college and has an unconditional offer at university to study musical performance. Cameron’s mum, Polly, says it has been a huge journey.  

Polly, who Cameron says is his inspiration and number one supporter, said: “Cameron has overcome so many challenges in his life with various medical conditions and additional needs, and as a family we are so proud of him!”