Hackney Air Cadet Luisa Lasso-Zambrano gets Jack Petchey award

A teenager who has been promoted to Corporal in the Air Cadets, after barely speaking any English when she joined two years ago, has been given an award.

Luisa Lasso-Zambrano, 14, has “developed in leaps and bounds” after joining the Air Cadets 296 Squadron in Stoke Newington.

She now acts as the main Spanish interpreter with cadets’ parents - a “terrific help” to the squadron.

She was among 150 young people to be given a Jack Petchey Foundation Achievement Award at the Great Hall in Kensington on Sunday.