IN 1987, TWO local students won an award to help fund their gap years, in 1987.

Henrietta Bowden (17), from Coates, was planning to take a year off when she finished school that summer to do missionary work in India alongside Mother Theresa.

She would fly out to Hong Kong in December to join a missionary group for training before going on to India to work with missionaries including Mother Theresa until the following July.

Henrietta said: “Before going to university, I thought it would be a good idea to learn a bit more about the kind of social problems facing people in other parts of the world.”

She received £800 towards the cost of her trip after winning the Dorothy Minnis award but estimated she needed to raise a further £1,200.

Henrietta was presented with her award by the Soroptimist International of Cirencester and District.

The other recipient of the Minnis award was Richard Keen (22) who was training to become a doctor. 

He was formerly a student at Deer Park school and hoped to use his grant to fund a trip to Papua New Guinea to do three months clinical training in an overseas hospital.

Dorothy Minnis was a member of the Soroptimists who left a bequest to the club after she died.