The inspiring girls from Bath and Wiltshire who have received national awards for their charity work

Two inspiring nine-year-old's from Bath and Wiltshire have received national awards for their charity work.

Harmonie-Rose Allen, from Bath, and Carmela Chillery-Watson, from Wiltshire, were honoured with The British Citizen Youth Award (BCYA) at the Palace of Westminster on Thursday 12 October.

Both youngsters have raised more than £500,000 for different charities.

Harmonie-Rose had all of her limbs amputated after she contracted meningitis when she was just 10 months old, but since then, has raised more than £100,000 for charity.

In 2019, the nine-year-old completed the Bath half-marathon on her prosthetics, raising more than £6,000 for Time is Precious - a children's charity.

During lockdown, she also completed her 2.6 challenge, where she tackled six things doctors said she would never be able to do, 26 times.

This included running, singing, dancing, drawing gymnastics and jumping. She raised more than £76,000 for Meningitis Now. She was then appointed as the youngest ambassador in the charity’s history.

Her latest challenge involved scaling a climbing wall 100 times and running 500m for the first time in her blades, taking part in a colour run and raising more than £6,000 for a local accessible playground.

Carmela Chillery-Watson has taken part in more than 20 fundraising events over the last five years, raising more than £400,000 for Muscular Dystrophy UK.

The nine-year-old from Devizes, was diagnosed with LMNA-related congenital muscular dystrophy (L-CMD) when she was three years old.

L-CMD is a progressive muscle-wasting disease which weakens every muscle over time. It affects people's ability to walk or use their arms and hands, and weakens the heart and respiratory muscles. It leads to an average life expectancy into late-teenage years. 

Carmela's family say she has always been determined to stay as active as she can and she has now helped fund research into L-CMD.

In 2019, she embarked on a 300km challenge - walking one kilometre a day with her mum while dressed as Wonder Woman.

When the pandemic started, Carmela had to shield due to her condition, meaning she missed essential hospital and physio appointments.

Carmela then used that time to post videos explaining her physio exercises online, in the hope it could help others living with physical disabilities.

In 2021, Carmela and her mum Lucy started a new challenge - the '150 One a Day Challenge' - where they posted a physical therapy challenge each day until June 2021.

Carmela and Harmonie-Rose joined 22 other young award recipients, who collectively have raised more than £850,000 for charitable causes.