Rochelle Humes surprises Mentor of The Year winner Rahul Mehra

Rahul Mehra was crowned the winner of the 2019 Prince's Trust Mentor of The Year Award for his contribution to GAP and their partnership with The Prince’s Trust, which he has been working on for the past three years. Rahul goes the extra mile by seeking to help young people gain employment and is active in his work with the trust - helping to hire young people through their Get Hired events.

Rahul was surprised on Good Morning Britain; he thought was taking part in a studio tour. Rahul was taken to the make-up room where he was surprised by his favourite celebrity Rochelle Humes before being interviewed by Adil Ray and Ranvir Singh on his achievement.

About The Prince’s Trust Awards

The Prince’s Trust and TK Maxx & Homesense Awards recognise the achievements of disadvantaged young people who have succeeded against the odds, improved their chances in life, had a positive impact on their local community, as well as those who have played a part in supporting the work of The Trust. The award ceremony is on 13th March at the London Palladium.

Find Rahul's and other finalists' full stories below.

The finalists

After hundreds of nominations with a judging panel including GMB's Kate Garraway and last year's Mentor of the Year winner Yasin El Ashrafi, we narrowed it down to four finalists.

Finalist 1 - Julia Flaherty

Julia is a volunteer mentor who has been supporting young people in North Wales with their businesses and personally for the past four years. She had been travelling around the world teaching English as a second language when she became ill and had to return home. Keen to feel useful again, Julia wanted to put her skills to use to support young people and found The Prince’s Trust. The young people she mentors often stay in touch long after the mentoring relationship finishes and Julia finds mentoring and supporting young people reach their goals incredibly rewarding.

Featured in the film:

Julia Flaherty (Nominated for Mentor of the Year)Emily Hatton (Person who nominated Julia and was mentored by Julia)Sam Flaherty (Julia's sister and was mentored by Julia)Bernard Flaherty (Julia's dad)

Finalist 2 - Karen Woodhead

Karen is a secondary school teacher who has been delivering a Prince’s Trust programme with students at her North London school for the past fifteen years, supporting over 150 pupils in that time. She is passionate about helping her students, who need additional support to engage with school. She runs a tailored curriculum to meet their needs, alongside The Prince’s Trust Achieve programme. Karen helps her students organise events which bring the local community together, such as an annual Christmas Party with the students and Senior Citizens. Her plans for the future include working with the young people on gang culture and she says the day young people stop coming first is the day she’ll retire.

Featured in the film:Karen Woodhead (Nominated for Mentor of the Year Award)Violet Douglas (Works for the Princes Trust and nominated Karen)Daniel Bruton (Headteacher of Chace Community School, Enfield)Gracia Tshisekedi and Shane Gill Clark (Students from Chace Community School, Enfield)

Finalist 3 - Michelle Fenlon

Michelle has been working with The Prince’s Trust delivering its Team programme in South London for twenty years, in that time supporting over 700 young people. As someone who took part in the programme herself as a young person, Michelle has come full circle and is now mentoring others on the programme that helped her. Michelle’s influence on those she helps is clear as a number of those she’s mentored have gone on to work on the programme.

Featured in the film:Michelle Fenlon (Nominated for Mentor of the Year Award)Dylan England (Nominated Michelle and has been mentored by her)Danny Barrett (Mentored by Michelle)

Finalist 4 - Rahul Mehra

Rahul works for GAP and is at the heart of their partnership with The Prince’s Trust which he has been working on for the past three years. He works to support young people gain employment, by delivering bespoke programmes providing work experience at their stores, and also actively works with the Trust to employ young people through their Get Hired events. He takes a personal interest in the young people who GAP support and encourages his colleagues to get involved to support more even more young people.

Featured in the film:Rahul Mehra (Nominated for Mentor of the Year)Catherine Hutchinson (Works for the Princes Trust and nominated Rahul)Guilherme Assis (Mentored by Rahul and works for Gap)Rebecca Gordon (Mentored by Rahul and works for Gap)

Voting for the Prince's Trust Mentor of The Year is now closed.