Autistic award winner shares joke with Edward

An autistic teenager has told of his amusing exchange with the Duke of Edinburgh after he was presented with an award.

Jacob, 18, from Windsor, said that when he told Prince Edward where he was from after receiving a Gold Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) Award, the duke replied: "I think I might know that place."

Jacob was one of just a handful of young people to personally speak to Prince Edward at a festival-style celebration held at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday.

During their exchange, Jacob reflected on completing his Gold expedition in tough conditions, telling The duke how he and his team "got on with it and powered through," adding that the experience showed him "resilience can go far".

Jacob, who has autism and learning difficulties, completed his DofE at Manor Green School in Maidenhead, where he was the first student to achieve the Gold Award, given to those who have shown extraordinary perseverance, creativity and resilience during their award completion.

He attended the palace garden celebration alongside thousands of other young achievers, Formula One racing pundit Billy Monger, former Love Island star Tasha Ghouri and other celebrities.

Jacob's mother Kat said that after completing his Silver DofE, he needed "quite a lot of support to get through it all" but he "displayed huge courage and determination to complete all the aspects of his Gold Award".

She said: "We are all super proud of him."

The duke praised Jacob's determination, telling him it was "fantastic" that he was receiving his award.

Sharon Astle, DofE manager at Manor Green School, said: "Jacob showed such resilience during his Silver Award practice expedition when the weather was particularly awful.

"Despite this, when I asked Jacob if he would like to start his Gold Award he jumped at the opportunity and consistently pushed himself to progress personally."

The Buckingham Palace event also marked the DofE charity's 70th anniversary.

According to DofE, since its conception in 1956, it has reached more than 15.5m young people globally, with more than 8.8m young people having started a DofE Award in the UK – enough to fill Wembley Stadium 98 times.

The duke posted in the DofE's 70th anniversary digital scrapbook, with a humorous account of when his father Prince Philip presented him with his Gold Award at St James's Palace in 1986.

He said: "Usually, my father would give the bunch of award certificates to a presenter to distribute but this time he talked to our group, gave me my certificate and then said, 'well, since I've given you that one, I'll give you the rest' and handed the whole lot to me to hand out!"