LOCHGELLY High School pupil Reece Lyall was delighted he got the chance to have the RYLA experience.

Reece went to the Rotary Youth Leadership Award course last summer through the backing of Cowdenbeath Rotary Club, and on Thursday he was at their meeting to tell how he got on.

Reece spent a week at the course and felt it was a really inspiring experience which he learned an awful lot from.

Said Reece, who who was accompanied at the meeting by new Lochgelly High rector, Debbie Aitken: "It really was a fantastic experience which gave me the opportunity to meet so many new people.

"We were split into teams who were to work together to tackle a whole host of tasks over the week and amazingly the first one we had to take on was climbing up the Cairngorms!

"Not my normal day at all but even though I have never been a great one for heights I found it great fun.

"It also helped me prepare for my day as leader of the team when we undertook rock climbing and it was a challenge I really found fun and it was really rewarding to be able to successfully complete it."

Reece said that each day they would be given a chat by one of the volunteers there and there was this man who arrived to speak to them with two beagle dogs.

He went on: "He was a very inspiring individual and we found out that he had been in the army and during his service he had lost both his legs due to a mine exploding. He was so mobile and a truly amazing guy.

"It kind of summed up our week, a time when we were able to learn so much and the experience really boosted my self confidence.

"The skills I learned will be so very useful and of course making so many new friends that I regularly communicate with was fantastic.

"I would like to thank the rotary club for making the experience possible for me."