Rogart woman given a nod for a prestigious Young Scot Award

A young woman who raised more than £10,000 to have her leg amputated due to excruciating pain before becoming a top para-canoeist is in the running for a Young Scot Award.

Hope Gordon (24) from Rogart has been nominated in the sports category, among other 'extraordinary' young people from across Scotland who have made a significant impact on the lives of people in their community.

The Young Scot Awards will recognise people aged between 11 and 26 in its 14th annual ceremony, which is this year taking place online on August 13. Winners will join a prestigious roll call including actors such as Karen Gillan and Martin Compston, alongside world class athletes including Sir Andy Murray and Olympian Laura Muir.

Hope was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) following years of pain in her left leg. When the leg stopped working and started restricting her sport ambitions, she courageously crowdfunded for surgery and had the leg amputated in 2016.

Hope was a member of the Scottish swimming team from 2010 until 2018, competing at national and international level competitions. She went on to try canoeing and was then invited to train full time with the GB para canoe team. She decided to call it a day on competitive swimming and relocated to Nottingham to commit full time to paracanoe and hopes to take the sport as far as she possibly can.

In 2018 Hope graduated with a 2.1 honours degree in sport and exercise science from Edinburgh Napier University.

Louise Macdonald OBE, chief executive of Young Scot, said: “We’re really excited about celebrating Scotland’s most amazing young people in our first ever online Awards ceremony. You can expect an evening filled with the inspiring stories of young people who are doing outstanding things across Scotland. Hope has gone above and beyond in their community and we can’t wait to celebrate with them at the Sunday Mail Young Scot Awards next month.”

Awards host and radio presenter Gemma Cairney said: “This year’s award ceremony will be unlike any other and I’m delighted to be host of the first ever virtual Sunday Mail Young Scot Awards. I can't wait to meet the incredible finalist as I'm completely inspired by their stories, accomplishments, and huge contributions to their communities. It’s going to be a night to remember for everyone!”

Other Highlanders included in the award ceremony are environmental campaigner Holly Gillibrand (15) from Fort William, Xander Johnston (13) from Aviemore nicknamed AntBoy has logged more than 800 hours surveying for rare and endangered insects in and around the Cairngorms National Park and creating videos for his YouTube channel and John Munro (18) from Culbokie, Ross-shire who has clocked up more than 1,000 tracked hours of volunteering.

The finalists will attend the online ceremony on 13 August 2020. The winners will be announced during the live streamed event hosted on Young Scot’s YouTube channel.

To find out more, please visit: youngscotawards.com. Follow #YSAwardsOnline2020 to stay up to date and find out more about these inspirational young people.

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