Croydon residents have been honoured at the first Spirit of London Awards to celebrate the capital’s young people.
Organised by the Damilola Taylor Trust, the awards ceremony, was held on Friday – the same day nine years ago that 10-year-old Damilola was killed in a council estate in Peckham.
The winners attended the awards with the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, X-Factor contestants JLS and Alexandra Burke and a special guest appearance from Sir Michael Caine.
Only 23 young people and groups were shortlisted from more than 3,000 nominations received from around the capital.
Nathaniel Da Costa and Dwayne Miller, both 19, won the Community Business Entrepreneur category for their creation of Kolor Skeme a clothing brand for 13 to 19-year-olds.
Ebonie Reid-Barlow, 17, won the Achievement Through Education award.
Born to drug-abused parents, Miss Reid-Barlow was adopted after being in intensive care for the first six weeks of her life for drug withdrawal.
She is currently studying and working towards becoming a doctor.
A special recognition award was also made for outstanding contribution to charity campaigning. It was given posthumously to Daniel De Gale, who died on October 8, 2008, aged 21.
A former leukaemia patient, he helped promote much-needed bone marrow donations from the black community
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