WHEN charity workers discovered a rare silver medal in an old chest of drawers they knew someone would miss it and began a hunt for its owner.

Volunteer Arthur Mead, who works for Top Drawer, a charity that collects and sells donated furniture, found the 1990 Queen’s Scout Award while polishing the unit.

He contacted the Adver to ask for help and after appearing in the paper a week ago, he received a phone call from its owner.

Jo Vizor, of Gorse Hill, received the Queen’s Scout Award at Windsor Castle along with her husband Andrew when she was 18.

She had no idea the medal was missing until a neighbour’s daughter, Jenny Roe, showed her the story in the paper.

The Queen’s Scout award is the highest award for young Scouts and Jo, a business analyst, said she was pleased to have the medal back in her possession as a memory of the day.

“You don’t receive anything for the award. You just have the honour of being there at Windsor, so we bought it as a souvenir,” she said.

“We are grateful to Top Drawer and the Swindon Advertiser for getting together to return it.”

To earn the award Jo and Andrew cycled to Windsor from Swindon and back again, which was a trip of more than 100 miles.

At the time they were engaged and planning their wedding.

Jo said that the trip had given them a chance to take some time out together.

The couple, who celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary in 2010, have passed their enthusiasm for scouting onto their two sons, Josh, 15, and Jacob, 13, who are both members of the 17th Swindon Scouts.

“It’s a big family tradition,” said Jo.

“My grandparents were involved too and my eldest is just coming up to the age when he might do the award himself.”

Top Drawer is part of Home Stonham, a national organisation which provides housing and support for more than 18,000 people across England.

John Woodcock, project manager for Stonham, said they were delighted to help Jo and the charity needed more volunteers such as Arthur.

“Top Drawer is always looking for good volunteers to help with running the project,” he said.

“We hoped we would find the owner after the interest it generated from local Scouting organisations.”