WORCESTER Warriors’ Dan Hart has scooped a national honour in a ceremony at Barclays headquarters in London.

Hart is a HITZ support officer and scooped the Champion Award for going above and beyond the call of duty to help someone on the programme to overcome personal barriers.

Hart, from Norton, is an inspiration to the teenagers enrolled on Warriors’ HITZ programme, especially Nathan Collins from Redditch.

He supported Collins by teaching him life skills which have given him a positive outlook for the future.

Hart said: “I’m really pleased to have received this award.

“The focus for me is about working with all the young people on our HITZ scheme to impact their lives in a positive way.

“The teenagers on the HITZ programme have often been faced with barriers in life and our role is to help them grow as individuals and develop their skills.”

HITZ is Premiership Rugby’s multi award-winning programme that seeks to tackle some of the greatest challenges facing young people today — unemployment, crime and disillusionment.

The programme is delivered nationally through 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and uses rugby to increase young people’s resilience, self-reliance and confidence and gives them the skills to get back into education, apprenticeships and employment. The scheme is supported by four key partners in Barclays, Comic Relief, Land Rover and Wooden Spoon.

Anthony Martin from Gloucester and Aaron Stanley from Tolladine are also involved in the Warriors HITZ programme and were highly commended in the Community Impact Award and Young Achiever of the Year respectively.

Hart added: “Since I started working at the community team at Warriors, I’ve found it really rewarding.”