A youth councillor and charity volunteer has received a Diana award for her social action and humanitarian work.

Fifteen-year-old Hannah Chowdhry, from Chigwell, received her certificate from HM Lord-Lieutenant of South Glamorgan, Morfudd Meredith at the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff on Monday, July 15.

The Diana Award recognises the positive achievements youngsters have made in their society, reflecting the late Princess of Wales’ belief that young people can change the world.

A statement commenting on Miss Chowdhry’s achievements said: “Hannah has always been a very community-spirited person, intent on improving the locality where she lives for the benefit of everyone.

“At high school Hannah became aware that some local pupils were using legal-highs and more severe drugs, so she initiated a campaign that led to the creation of a borough-wide drug crime reporting portal on the East Ilford Betterment Partnership website.

“A solution she designed to help better map crimes of this nature and hopes that as awareness of the facility increases it can be used by local police to enhance drug operations ward by ward, whilst also safely galvanizing community action against this crime.”

The young volunteer, who is a long-term helper at the British Asian Christian Association (BACA) has led several community campaigns to help improve the lives of people within the community.

At aged 13, the teenager represented BACA by speaking at Westminster Cathedral to an audience of over 1,000 people and was invited to an EU Conference on minority persecution in Pakistan.

She her first community led campaign aged just seven-years old by raising £50,000 to produce a mammoth skull replica for Redbridge Museum.

Miss Chowdhry is currently an Essex Youth Councillor and a member of Redbridge Youth Council and is the first young person to represent two constituencies.

On top off her voluntary work, the 15-year-old also suffers from Juvenile Arthritis, which has not stopped her representing her school in several sports until this year.

The statement discussing the teenager’s achievements added: “Sadly, Hannah has had to miss over 24 weeks schooling this year after a footballing accident which revealed that her actual condition is Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy an extremely painful condition, meaning that she was not able to participate in any sports this year.

“Hannah is determined that her physical condition does not deter her from helping her community wherever she can.”