OKEHAMPTON Rotary Club held its annual meeting last week, which saw the presentation of a 'Young Citizen of the Year' award.

The club nominated 18-year-old Ben Stephens for his achievements within the community.

Ben, who was born in Australia and moved to England when he was four years old, came to live in Okehampton in 2003.

He was home tutored to GCSE standard and is now a student at Okehampton College, where he is studying for his A-levels.

Speaking at the presentation standard bearer Ben said it was a bit of a shock when he had a call from Peter Williams, the secretary for the Okehampton branch of the Royal British Legion, as he thought he was going to be asked to attend another parade.

He said: 'First I'd like to say a big thank you to Okehampton Rotary Club.

'I am extremely honoured to receive this award and it means an awful lot to me.'

Ben became one of the youngest branch standard bearers in the country after volunteering to be the deputy standard bearer for the Okehampton branch of the Royal British Legion in 2007.

In 2008 he took third place in the National Youth Standard Bearers' Competition and he is also an active member of the Okehampton Parish Church.

Ben, who became a member of the Air Training Corps and has achieved success during his six years with the Okehampton detachment where he is now a cadet sergeant, has also taken part in various adventure training expeditions in the UK and Sweden.

He has participated in the Ten Tors Expedition twice and gained the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Bronze standard and is currently working towards the Gold Award.

In addition he has attended numerous annual camps and gained best cadet and smartest cadet awards on several occasions.