A touching story about his surprising friendship with local D-Day veteran Ted Owens, of Pembroke Dock, has resulted in a Cardiff schoolboy being chosen as one of 12 finalists in the national STABILO Young Journalist of the Year competition!

Eight-year-old Evan Lewis, who attends St. Mary’s Primary School, Cardiff, was chosen by a panel of judges after he wrote an entry about D-Day and submitted it to the competition.

Evan’s entry, a lovely story about how their 80-year age gap taught both he and Ted some beautiful life lessons, was chosen from hundreds of entries; the overall winner will be an announced in October.

Evan has said “In France I met with about 40 veterans and they told me their stories. I was really excited when I came back to school and wanted to tell my friends. When I read about the First News competition I decided to write down some of the things they told me.

“Being chosen as a finalist is really great. When I heard about it I didn’t know what to say. All my classmates read First News and like to do the crossword”

Evan’s Dad, Greg Lewis, added: “Evan went on the trip with his six-year-old sister Caoimhe, myself, and our friend, D-Day veteran Ted Owens. Ted, from Pembroke Dock, was badly wounded on D-Day. He was a commando and returned to the fighting a few weeks later

“Evan and Ted got on really well. Evan and his sister took questions from schoolmates at St. Mary’s Primary and interviewed Ted in France close to the beach where he landed. It was a way to connect the younger generation with the old.

“Evan loves First News. It is a great way of getting children interested in news, current affairs and writing.”

Now in its fifth year, the annual writing competition, which is run by STABILO in association with First News, aims to find the best young writing talent in Britain. The winner will have the opportunity to write their very own column for leading children’s newspaper, First News and will win £1,000 of STABILO products for their classmates.

Vanya Hunter, marketing manager at STABILO, said: “The talent of our young journalists surprises us every year! It is such a joy to read the children’s work, and is extremely difficult to whittle it down to just 12 finalists. The standard was the highest it has ever been, there were some truly inspiring articles and stories, with the environment being the most popular subject. We hope that everyone continues to write even if they didn’t make it as a finalist.”