A STIRLING coach who goes above and beyond to ensure other young people have opportunities in sport has been nominated for an award.

Amanda Hiddleston, has been an ambassador for Shell Twilight Basketball for the past three years, ensuring sessions in the Raploch continue to be a place where local young people can participate in quality physical activities and in a safe environment.

She has also excelled in being a role model for new ambassadors joining the project and her tireless work has been recognised after she was named a finalist in the sportscotland Scottish Sports Futures Awards 2020.

Amanda, a former Stirling High pupil and now a student at Stirling University, also helped to develop new workshops on mental health that are relevant to young people and delivered them at Twilight sessions as well as to over 200 school of basketball pupils from all over the country.

The 20-year-old said: “I just love and enjoy what I do because of the buzz of seeing young people smiling and having fun.

“I really enjoy being able to get alongside people and support them to be the best person they can be.

“I also love the fact that Scottish Sports Futures (SSF) use sport as a positive tool to engage young people in something that can be life changing, it can give them a meaning and purpose.

“Being able to see the difference I have had on a young person is so difficult to describe, it fills me with great joy.

“The sense of just knowing you have helped someone make a positive change is an unbelievable feeling.

“More importantly just seeing a young person with a smile of their face makes everything I do worth it.”