A deaf teenager from Great Baddow High School in Chelmsford has been named Young Leader of the Year.

Jack Gair received the prestigious honour at the 2015 Jack Petchey Outstanding Achievement Awards - held in the Olympic Gallery at John Lewis Stratford City on Wednesday, November 18 - for his outstanding efforts as a leader at a number of Panathlon competitions this year.

The Panathlon Challenge is a national charity that provides sporting opportunities to over 7,500 disabled young people each year.

Jack, who turned 18 the previous day, collected his award from Paralympic swimming champion Liz Johnson, having been selected from a shortlist of three outstanding Panathlon leaders, all from Great Baddow High School. Lee Hart and Steve Harrison, both 17, were runners-up.

Young Leader of the Year Jack said: “I’m very proud of myself, but I also want to congratulate Lee and Steve for their nominations. I’m proud of them too. It was a shock to have three of us nominated from the same school. I’ve been to lots of Panathlon events and am very proud to help the children at them.”

Despite being profoundly deaf, Jack made an impact at as a leader at numerous Panathlon competitions this year, including the Essex county finals and the first ever Panathlon regional swim finals, held at the Aquatics Centre at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, where Jack got into the pool to help the disabled competitors, having to do so without the use of his hearing implant.

He was also the senior leader at the first Essex deaf Panathlon competition, conducting proceedings but also providing inspiration to the competitors - a role he was happy to fulfill.

“It’s good to be a role model for other deaf children,” said Jack.

“If they can see what I’ve done, they might think that they can learn to do the same in the future. It’s been great for me to get involved as a leader with Panathlon.”

Over 450 schools took part in Panathlon’s 115 ‘mini Paralympic’ competitions in 2014/15, with each event overseen by a team of Panathlon young leaders - among 3,000 students, aged 14-19, to have completed Panathlon’s leadership programme since it launched in 2011.

Great Baddow’s leadership academy have fully embraced the Panathlon programme, making it an integral part of their BTEC Sport qualification for the last five years. The link-up has proved a successful one, with Great Baddow becoming the first school to provide all three shortlisted nominees for Panathlon’s annual leadership award.

Chris Persey, sports college and leadership academy coordinator at Great Baddow, said: "It's very humbling to come into an environment like Panathlon and to have three of our leaders recognised for this award. All of the individuals here today are very inspirational.

"Jack’s award is fantastic. He has gone from a lad who, fourteen months ago, wouldn't talk very much or come out of his shell, to someone who is nationally recognised by an award like this.

"It's just brilliant.”

Panathlon events feature a range of sports which use specialist adaptive equipment, allowing children with a range of impairments to take part, including severe physical disabilities and learning difficulties.

The seventh annual Jack Petchey Outstanding Achievement Awards celebrated the most inspiring individuals to compete in Panathlon in 2014/15.

Paralympic swim champion Liz Johnson said: “What an inspirational group of young people, all of whom should be very proud of their achievements and thoroughly deserve their awards.

"Today has been a great celebration of Panathlon and how it uses the power of sport to change people's lives.”

Gemma Dunbar, head of project grants at the Jack Petchey Foundation said: "It's very inspirational to see all these young people doing such wonderful things and not letting anything get in their way.

"All of the young people here have proved right Jack's motto that 'if you think you can, you can'.”