By Mark Drew

Copyright expressandstar

The Young Citizen of the Year Awards are organised by the Rotary Clubs of Wolverhampton to celebrate the achievements of those in their teenage years and early 20s.

The event, now in its 12th year, was held at the University of Wolverhampton with around 140 guests, led by Mayor Councillor Craig Collingswood.

He presented the awards and guests also heard from guest speaker, Wolverhampton’s world-renowned microscopic artist Willard Wigan.

Three of the young people picked up special prizes, with Ethan Shaw winning the 13 to 18 category for his inspirational efforts to raise money for the charity Mind as well as his leadership in music and drama at Moseley Park School. The award is named after Tettenhall Rotarian Roger Timbrell, who has been an integral part of the awards and was on stage to present it to Ethan.

The 19 to 25 category was won by Frazer Humphreys, who plays an active part in the charity Mandem Meetup, which gives young men in the city the chance to meet and enjoy activities while learning how to cope with challenges around mental health. He joined the group himself and now helps leads chats and hikes for its 300 members.

And a special recognition award went to Wolverhampton College student Eva Abley, known to millions as a comedian on Britain’s Got Talent. She is a previous winner and was rewarded for her continued work in highlighting challenges for disabled young people.

All three were given plaques and £100 for themselves and £100 for their chosen charity. The Wolves Foundation also donated two tickets for a home game at Molineux to each of the winners.

The awards are now a regular fixture. Held at the Chancellor’s Hall, guests enjoyed a buffet as they heard the inspirational stories of those who were being honoured.

Awards chairman Mel Eves, the former Wolves star, spoke of his admiration for the young people who had made it through a process of being nominated and interviewed in order to get to the final.

He said: “They are a remarkable group of people and it has been a real privilege to meet them. It is humbling to hear their stories and they thoroughly deserve their evening in the spotlight.”

Mayor Councillor Craig Collingswood, who was joined evening by his daughter and mayoress Abby, said: “I’ve been blown away by the evening. It makes me so proud of Wolverhampton to see what wonderful people we have growing up in our city. The amazing things these young people have accomplished at such a young age is outstanding. They have grown up in our city and they are product of people in our city.”

Guest of honour Willard Wigan spoke of overcoming difficulties with his autism and dyslexia to become the world’s best micro artist, with a reputation that takes him around the world. The aritst, who has an MBE, says he promotes his home city at every opportunity and urged young people who meet challenges in life to “get better, not bitter”.

Here are the winners, and their stories:

A sixth form student at Moseley Park School, who has a passion for both musical theatre and football!

He recently raised over £1,400 for the charity MIND by walking from his home in Wolverhampton to the Welsh town of Llangollen in just 25 hours.

He has been very open about his own struggles with emotional health and wellbeing and became determined to overcome these issues by devoting his spare time to ‘making people smile’ as in his words ‘making someone happy is the best of feelings’

Prior to his epic walking challenge, he has directed school musicals to encourage younger children to ‘go for their dreams’ and has delivered whole school assemblies on overcoming fear to follow your passion.

Frazer Humphreys

Frazer was nominated by a number of people due to his work with the charity called “Mendem Meetup”, which focusses on helping men cope with mental health challenges and suicide prevention.

The charity, which started in Manchester, has now been established in Wolverhampton for four years and supports more than 300 men aged between 18 and 64

The support he received himself from the group taught him how to love and value himself – and he now helps others, helping to lead family days, WhatsApp group chats and group hikes. He is also ambitious to develop and wants to train to be more effective around suicide prevention as well as mountain leadership.

A previous winner of the Young Citizen Award and an outstanding ambassador for the city of Wolverhampton.

She attends Wolverhampton College and despite having cerebral palsy is a keen swimmer, dog walker and writer and deliverer of motivational talks. She published her memoirs – The Good, The Bad & The Wobbly: The Shaky Memoirs of a Cerebral Palsy Warrior in March 2024

She took part in the Sky television documentary ‘Disability in me’, which recently won a 2025 BAFTA in the non-scripted category. She uses social media to highlight challenges for disabled young people and offer support and also found time to organise a charity ball in Wolverhampton that raised over £20,000 for Birmingham Childrens Hospital.

Jessica Yang

Jessica attended Wolverhampton Girls High School. She plays Volleyball and is part of the England talent pathway and is a member of Bilston running club. From September she will be in Manchester studying for her degree apprenticeship in banking with the HSBC.

She has a real passion for promoting cultural diversity and inspiring empowerment within young women. She spent time as the vice chair of Youth Engagement Strategic Board, has arranged litter picking challenges within her local community and helped to arrange local neighbourhood street parties.

Sarah Featherstone

Sarah goes to Aldersley school, is a member of the Girl Guide Rangers and a young leader at Inpower UK.

She has overcome struggles with self confidence since childhood when she was diagnosed with autism. She received mentoring sessions with InPower that helped her overcome these issues and is now skilled in leading others.

She is a part of the City of Wolverhampton Council’s Family on Board Youth Forum, where she meets with other young people, professionals and community stakeholders to ensure the voice of young people is heard and used to develop services.

Richie Tanner

Richie was instrumental in creating CP Friends. He himself has cerebral palsy and as he moved into adulthood noticed a distinct lack of support networking for adults with CP. By his own admission he was becoming bored and lonely and realised that others with the condition may be feeling the same.

He organised a social get together at The Hub on Ashmore Park, which has grown very quickly. The Hub enables him and his friends to share stories of their struggles and anxieties because they fully understand what each other is going through, the result being the group feel more confident and less isolated.

Kieran Smith-Mills

Kieren is a talented musician, playing both guitar and bass. He is also an actor and songwriter.

He is an active member of HY5 – a youth forum for young people aged 11-25 with the lived experience of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). He also belongs to the group ‘Acting Up’ based at the Wolverhampton Arts Centre.

It is these two organisations that have helped improve his self confidence to the extent that he is able to support other young people in these creative arenas. His advice to other young people is ‘keep trying and never give up’.

Harleen Nahal

Harleen attends Wolverhampton Girls High School and is chair of the Wolverhampton Youth Council. She plays the viola and is a member of Wolverhampton Youth Orchestra. She loves cats, and fosters through Cats and Kittens Protection.

She supported the development of the Police and Crime Plan, encouraging members of the public to complete the survey.

She trained as a telephone volunteer for the Royal Voluntary Service and now spends several hours each week reducing the loneliness and isolation of elderly people.She is also an NHS advanced cadet with speciality in CPR and First Aid.

Aisha Mustapha

Aisha is a student in sixth form at Wednesfield Academy where she is Head Girl.

She devotes the rest of her time volunteering at the British Heart Foundation in Wolverhampton.

She uses her role as Head Girl to inspire other young people to overcome their shyness and social awkwardness and use their time to help others. She became a reading mentor at school to use her communication challenges to help other struggling young people learn to read.

Haya Mehager

Haya is a student at Wolverhampton Grammar School, having arrived in Wolverhampton from Slovakia. She admits her passion for helping others comes from her father who does a lot of charity work to help people in his home country of Sudan.

She became involved in Student Voice, which she ended up chairing as well as becoming a Senior Mental Health champion, Charity Ambassador and Diversity Champion.

She has raised money for Birmingham Children’s Hospital and is a motivational speaker in schools to encourage young people to support marginalised groups such as the LGBT community, and to become involved in volunteering and charity work.

She is a motivational speaker on a platform called ‘Speak’ that allows refugees to tell their stories and writes articles on related topics for magazines.

The awards are organised by the Rotary Clubs of Bilston, Tettenhall, Wednesfield and Wolverhampton and are supported by Wolverhampton City Council, The Way Youth Zone, Wolves Foundation and the Express & Star. They are sponsored by Collins Aerospace and the James Beattie Charitable Trust.