Heather Mann

Adopted at five months because of her birth mother's severe schizophrenia, my grand-daughter Heather has turned negatives into positives. Unusually for an adopted child, she maintains a caring relationship with her birth mother, whose difficult illness presents a challenge to adults, let alone to a young person. Heather has also initiated two major fund-raising projects on behalf of the National Schizophrenia Fellowship - now called Support in Mind. She raised £2,600 and talked openly about mental illness, challenging prejudice from her peers and speaking to the media in local newspapers and a national BBC Radio programme. She has been presented with the Diana Award, the Change It National Award for her courageous efforts and she also presented a bouquet to Princess Anne. Heather continues to invest time and effort into helping devastating illnesses. She will run 10k in the Race for Life for Cancer Research and plans a further run in October for Support in Mind. Heather is also actively involved with the Polish community in Edinburgh, doing artwork and cookery with children and engaging with their families. Heather visited an orphanage for children dying of AIDs in South Africa, and this has motivated her to go to Jamaica this summer to work in an orphanage for a month. Heather is s a truly inspirational young person, a torch bearer to people of many nationalities. She is ready to push out boundaries to help people in need.