Pontefract Badgers – part of St John Ambulance – will meet the Princess Royal on October 8 for her annual Young Achievers Ceremony after their work on the plight of their animal namesakes.


The badger sett, for children from five to 11, has spent the past year on a project to raising awareness and funds about the culling of badgers.
They have been awarded the St John Ambulance's David Nobbs Award for showing care in their community and winners of this award are invited to Buckingham Palace


Lorraine Hague, county badger leader, said: "Unfortunately we could only take six badgers to London, so we had to pull names out of a hat. They're really looking forward to it – it's very exciting.
"The whole sett had worked hard all year on the badger project. They must have seen something in the news last year about the culling of badgers because they all agreed to do the project on that.


"They looked at what the Wakefield Badger Trust did and created leafelts and posters to raise awareness of what was going on.
"They also raised money for the trust with sponsored walks and cake selling."