PENRITH young farmer Eamon Monaghan is truly a force to be reckoned with.

The 24-year-old from Newton Reigny beat off stiff competition to pick up the NFYFC’s Senior Member of the Year with his positive attitude and a great idea to help support YFC members.

Winning this important accolade was the icing on the cake for Eamon, who has worked tirelessly for Cumbria YFC and its members since he came into office as Cumbria’s County Chairman in November of last year.

A member of Skelton YFC, Eamon successfully sourced a £10,000 grant from the Cumbria Community Foundation to deliver alcohol and drugs awareness sessions to YFC members in the county over the next three years.

Eamon recognised a need for more education around drugs and alcohol abuse and wanted to do something proactive to support younger members. The project works in partnership with The Well Communities, a not-for-profit community service provider specialising in supporting people with addictions and mental health issues.

He explained: “Cumbria FYFC is very proud of our proactive approach to drug and alcohol use in our county.

“In modern day society it is a very naive attitude to think that drugs aren’t around you and it is important that everyone is aware of the effects and how to deal with them.

“It’s important that County Federations take a pro-active stance against drug and alcohol abuse.”

Eamon, a genetic consultant for AI firm Semex, supplying dairy farms, made it through his club, county and area rounds before competing against the six other Area finalists at the national final of the Senior Member of the Year competition in Leamington Spa on Sunday.

The final involved a formal interview with the judges as well as stage interviews during the entertainments finals.

On stage, in front of a packed auditorium Eamon was asked his opinion of social media, to which he replied positively about the improvements it can make to communication with members when used effectively.

On winning the competition, Eamon said: “I set off with a goal to come and do my best for Cumbria and our members and I went and smashed it, so I’m absolutely over the moon.

“Hopefully it encourages others to give it a go anyone can do it.”

Judge Bryce MacKellar said: “All the finalists had really positive examples to talk about and are offering so much to Young Farmers but Eamon had just gone that little bit further. He took some difficult decisions with issues that were affecting his county and he did something about it instead of just pushing it under the carpet.”