AN inspiring woman from Balloch has spoken of her delight after winning a diversity award.

Bernadette Williamson, 21, collected her gong during the Young Scot awards, sponsored by Standard Life and organised by a national Sunday newspaper.

Speaking at the bash Bernadette said: “It feels amazing to have won the Diversity Award - the support has been overwhelming. It’s a huge honour to be here and I’m grateful that the Young Scot Awards can help me to spread the word about young people’s rights in Scotland.”

Bernadette was bullied at school due to her ethnicity and, fuelled by a passion to help others; she joined Article 12 – a network who promotes youth rights in Scotland.

As a member of the Young Gypsy/ Travellers Lives (YGTL) project, Bernadette has spent the last five years raising awareness of the rights of the travelling community.

She has consulted on the Human Rights Act and presented to academics as part of a Children’s Rights seminar – her presentation has now been made into a learning guide for projects across Europe.

Now in its twelfth year, the Young Scot Awards is Scotland’s biggest celebration of young people and honours the outstanding work they do across the country. The awards showcase the incredible achievements of inspiring young people across 12 categories including Community, Diversity, Enterprise and Unsung Hero.

The guests who attended the awards on Thursday night at the Clyde Auditorium were wowed by performances from X-Factor sensation Emily Middlemass.

The awards were hosted by Edith Bowman and attended by famous faces including Still Game’s Jane McCarry, Gavin Mitchell and Mark Cox, Eastenders stars Jamie Borthwick and Harry Reid as well as Paralympians Jo Butterfield, Hannah Dines, Michael Kerr and Micky Yule.

They were joined on the red carpet by actor Paul Brannigan and the cast of River City.

Louise Macdonald, chief executive of Young Scot, said: “Congratulations to all the inspirational winners, finalists and nominees across Scotland. The quality of entries this year was absolutely outstanding and we were blown away by the incredible stories we’ve heard. The awards were a great success and a fantastic opportunity to shine a spotlight on Scotland’s young heroes.”

Brendan McGinty, Editor of the Sunday Mail, said: “It is our privilege to honour such courageous, determined and talented young Scots. Scotland’s future is clearly in very good hands."