LONDON, May 17 (Reuters) – Britain’s King Charles greeted celebrity ambassadors for his youth charity, including veteran musician Nile Rodgers, along with the charity’s award winners at the first reception in London on Wednesday. Buckingham Palace since his coronation.
Dressed in an elegant navy blue suit, Charles, who was crowned on May 6 in one of the country’s biggest ceremonial events in decades, welcomed the winners in the circular Bow Room at the rear of the palace facing the garden.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Fiath Idowu, 21, who flew in from Nigeria to receive the Prince’s Trust Global Achiever Award. She said she left school at age 15 to support her family and struggled to earn enough to meet her needs.
“Coming from Nigeria to (the) UK…I’m in the palace, I’ve seen the king!”
The Trust was created by Charles in the 1970s while he was still a prince and counts British actor Idris Elba as one of its beneficiaries.
(1/7) Britain’s King Charles III receives Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf during an audience at Buckingham Palace, London, Britain, May 17, 2023. Yui Mok/Pool via REUTERS
Idowu was among 11 winners who were recognized at a ceremony at London’s Theater Royal on Tuesday for outstanding achievements in various categories, including business, sustainability and women’s empowerment.
The reception at the palace drew celebrity guests, including British TV and radio presenter Tyler West, who even managed a fist bump from the new monarch. He later told reporters that he was delighted that Charles, 74, had “passed the vibration check.”
The Trust, which claims to have supported 50,000 young people in Britain and 30,000 more around the world in the past year, has expanded to two dozen countries, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Barbados.
“I’ve talked to so many young people in this room and they all tell me how they got started because of the Prince’s Trust,” Rodgers, who performed at the charity’s gala dinner in 2020, told Reuters.
Another winner, Joanna Drewett, from Manchester in Great Britain, said that the support offered by the Trust through a self-development course transformed her and set her on a new path.
She was accompanied by British singer-songwriter Sam Ryder, runner-up last year in the Eurovision contest.
Reporting by Muvija M; Edited by Emelia Sithole-Matarise
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