Courageous Zoe Jones has proved she's one in, well, a millennium after winning a volunteer of the year award.

Zoe, 19, from Wickford, has given 250 hours of her own time to various deserving causes and soldiered on in the face of her own health problems.

Her hard work has been recognised after she won the Personal Commitment Award at the Regional Millennium Volunteer of the Year Awards 2006.

Zoe said: "Over the past year I've had a lot of struggles to deal with and have been in and out of hospital. However, I've continued with my volunteering and also various training courses.

"I'm really pleased to win this award."

Zoe has Crohn's disease which causes inflammation of the stomach.

But her illness hasn't stopped her volunteering to work with local Brownies, Girl Guides and Scouts, or undertake training, including learning sign language.

She has also been involved in the Essex Experience, a program run by Scouts to help people at risk of social exclusion and was also involved in a event for the Peaceful Place, an organisation which helps young people with dementia.

And Zoe did all this while studying for an Open University literature degree.

She joined other young volunteers from Essex whose extraordinary contributions were also recognised at a Millennium Volunteers awards night in Cambridge.

The Millennium Volunteers programme recognises the efforts of people aged between 16 and 24, and allows their volunteering efforts to be officially recognised.

More than 40,000 volunteers have received an Award of Excellence since the initiative began in 1999.