Blackburn Scout leader joins Kate around the campfire (From Burnley and Pendle Citizen)

Blackburn Scout leader joins Kate around the campfire

7:11pm Friday 22nd March 2013 in News By

A BLACKBURN scouting leader joined the Duchess of Cambridge to sing songs around a campfire on an adventure training course.

Abid Saleh, a group leader from Blackburn’s Abu Hanifah Foundation Scout Group, joined the duchess in her first-ever scout training event.

The duchess met Abid and volunteer Sazeda Patel, also from the group, along with 24 other adult scouting volunteers from across the UK at Great Tower Scout Activity Centre on the shores of Windermere.

Abid, 32, who lives in Pleckgate Road, was part of a group making dough twists with Kate, wrapping flour, water and sugar dough around a stick before cooking them on the campfire.

He said: “She was just part of the group, very laid back and relaxed and got stuck in when we were mixing the ingredients.

“We laughed at the weather and she said it could not have been much colder — but at least it wasn’t raining! She was asking the very practical questions about the measurements for the dough, while we were just all having a laugh.”

The event was part of a drive to encourage more volunteers to step forward following a surge in the number of young people joining scout troups.

The movement has thousands of young people who want to join but more volunteer leaders need to be recruited to allow this to happen.

The future queen, who helps as a volunteer at a scout group close to her home in North Wales, practised lighting different types of fires and teaching these skills to cubs.

Bear Grylls, UK Chief Scout, said: “She has an incredibly busy life yet since she joined the scouts she has so generously managed to volunteer and get involved with her local group.

“Over the last few years it has been our mission to make it easier for adults to give as much or as little as they are able. There are few greater privileges than being part of empowering young lives through the simple principles of Scouting: fun, friendship, family, skills and adventure.”

Sazeda said: “I love working with young people. I get such a buzz out of teaching them the skills we are learning today like climbing, fire lighting and cooking outside.”

It’s great that the Duchess can find time in her busy schedule to help Scouting develop the lives of young people in her local community, I bet she enjoys it as much as I do.”

To volunteer as a scout leader or to find out more visit scouts.org.uk/get-involved or call 0845 300 1818.