Charlotte Wilkinson-Burnett, of 1181 ATC squadron,17, had a lucky break on Tuesday 6th April after her plaster cast was signed – by Prince Harry.She was among 60 youngsters from the four cadet forces, the Combined Cadet Force, the Sea Cadet Corps, the Army Cadet Force, and the Air Training Corps, on a training exercise in South Wales. The group had travelled to Powys, and had expected to undertake a 25km trek in the Black Mountains alone.
But they were stunned when Harry met them on the final leg of the walk back to base near Crickhowell in the Brecon Beacons. The Prince even took time out to sign Charlotte’s plaster cast after she broke her wrist playing hockey.
The third in line to the throne wrote: ‘Get well soon, Harry’.
Charlotte plans to keep the autograph as a souvenir. She said: ”The cast is coming off on 18th May but I’m keeping it now, it’s going in a glass box.”
Charlotte joined 60 teenagers from across the UK on a three-week expedition to Lesotho in July, where they will help development projects run by Sentebale, the charity Harry set up in memory of his mother Princess Diana.
The young cadets will paint schools and help out in other projects run by the charity in Lesotho, one of the world’s poorest countries with a population decimated by Aids.
The expedition, which will also allow them to go trekking in the Drakensburg Mountains and visit Boer War battlefields in neighbouring South Africa, is part of a series of events to mark the 150th anniversary of the cadet movement.
Harry, who met the cadets at the end of a 25km training walk in the Black Mountains near Crickhowell, thanked them for their efforts in helping his charity and gave them his thoughts on getting fit for the expedition.
The prince, who was in the army branch of the cadets at Eton, said: “You will really enjoy it, it will be a hell of an adventure. Once you have met them your lives will be very, very different because you will have an understanding you never thought you would of the way people have to live out there.”
He joked that the secret to getting fit was ”no burgers and no PlayStations”, and added that the cadets would experience “a bit of hard labour, a bit of digging, a bit of baby cradling for the girls and maybe the boys.”
Expedition leader Lt Col (Retd) Nick Arding RM said Prince Harry’s visit was a “great boost to morale”.
He said: “He stayed for around one and a half hours and it was a great boost to morale seeing him. Prince Harry clearly had a great time meeting all these young men and women who are assisting a charity very close to his heart. He was very relaxed and informal and the cadets all enjoyed spending time with him.”
The Lesotho expedition, which takes place from 24th July to 18th August, is one of over 150 events taking place at national and regional levels to mark the 150th anniversary of the cadet movement, one of the oldest and most successful voluntary youth organisations in the world.
Today it numbers 131,000 young people, led by 25,000 adult volunteers, in well over 3,000 sites across the UK.
The year of celebrations launched on 17th February when 26 cadet ambassadors had an audience at Buckingham Palace with the Queen, patron of Cadet150 and The Duke of Edinburgh.
Forthcoming Cadet150 events include a Royal review of the Cadet Forces at Buckingham Palace on 6th July and expeditions to the Himalayas, Nigeria, the Italian Dolomites, Peru, the USA, Kenya and Namibia.
Cadets will also be planting 150,000 trees in partnership with the Woodland Trust. For more information, visit www.ArmyCadets.com
