Her Majesty The Queen will present a Queen's Young Leaders Award to two exceptional young people from Malta at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, London on Thursday, the 23rd of June.

As the Commonwealth celebrates The Queen's 90th birthday, this year's Award winners, 29-year-old Annabelle Xerri and 20-year-old Sara Ezabe Malliue, have been recognised by The Queen for taking the lead in transforming the lives of others and making a lasting difference in their communities.

As a Queen's Young Leader, they will be representing Malta as they join winners from 45 different Commonwealth countries in London for five days of high-level engagements, all designed to help them further their life-changing work.

Before receiving their Queen's Young Leaders Award at Buckingham Palace, the winners will visit 10 Downing Street and the UK headquarters of global social networking company Twitter, and meet with senior executives at the BBC World Service.

They will also meet the Commonwealth Secretary General, take part in workshops at the University of Cambridge, have meetings with UK business leaders, and visit projects that are changing the lives of vulnerable people in the UK.

Annabelle Xerri is being recognised for her work to ensure equal opportunities for the deaf community in her country. Sara Ezabe Malliue is being acknowledged for work to promote a more diverse and inclusive society.

Selected from a competitive process where thousands of young people from all over the Commonwealth applied to be a Queen's Young Leader, Annabelle said: "Being a Queen's Young Leader opened many doors for me and it is giving me many opportunities. I am looking forward to meeting with all the incredible Queen's Young Leaders from across the Commonwealth, who have amazing ideas. It's great to have the opportunity to be able to connect and work with each other, talking about projects that we can do together, sharing ideas of what we can do within our own communities."

This year's Award winners are working to support others, raise awareness and inspire change on a variety of issues including education, climate change, gender, mental health and improving the lives of people with disabilities.

The application process to become a 2017 Queen's Young Leader opens at 8.00pm BST on Friday 24 June 2016. The programme is looking for people aged between 18 and 29 who are dedicated to creating positive changes to the lives of people in Malta.

Details about how to apply to become a Queen's Young Leader, together with information about the 2016 Award winners and Highly Commended runners up, is available at www.queensyoungleaders.com.

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