A FORMER Dawlish student has won an international award for her work in public speaking.

Sandra Bellamy, an author and YouTuber, has been recognised for at the Women’s Business Awards.

The former Dawlish College student who grew up in Eastdon, was awarded Second Runner Up for Speaker of the Year 2025 at the international Women’s Business Awards, organised by Women’s Business Club, held in London on 3 December.

Sandra was also named a finalist for the Diversity and Inclusion Award, with the Women’s Business Awards, celebrating women in business from 78 countries worldwide.

The red-carpet ceremony took place at Church House, Westminster, and was broadcast live to a global audience.

Sandra was selected from 20 finalists in the Speaker of the Year category in recognition of her impact, authenticity, and dedication to using her voice to educate and empower others.

She discovered she is asexual in 2014 and has spent the past decade raising awareness of asexuality, a minority sexual orientation, through her YouTube channel Asexualise My Asexual Life, which has now surpassed 1.7 million global views.

Her speaking work includes a talk on self-reinvention at Oxford University for bLU Talks (featured on KNEKT TV), as well as two talks at the UK Asexuality Conference in London, focused on asexual meetups and self-dating, held at the University of Westminster’s Business School.

She has also been featured on BBC Radio, Channel 4, The Jeremy Vine Show, and in the Mirror and Daily Star, alongside numerous global podcasts and radio stations.

Sandra first began hosting asexual meet-ups in Exeter in 2015, where she now lives, drawing people from across the UK.

She credits the openness and acceptance she experienced growing up near Dawlish with shaping her confidence to speak openly about identity.

She said: ‘Growing up near Dawlish and going to Dawlish Community College, I never imagined that the girl from Eastdon would one day be standing on a global awards stage, representing an entire community.

‘I grew up living near a gay guy couple, so I always accepted that heterosexuality was not the only sexuality that existed and that love exists in different forms and that was normal.

‘So, discovering I am asexual in sexual orientation, not only was a relief to discover there are others like me, it felt so natural and right to me, and the missing puzzle piece of my life that I have now come home to and embrace with self-love.’

Sandra is now an international best-selling self-published author as well as a YouTube content creator, hosting live-streamed chat shows and daily vlogs on her channel Asexualise My Asexual Life.

Through her channel, Sandra describes herself as a ‘Pocket Speaker’, sharing education, lifestyle content and real-life storytelling to help others feel less alone and more confident in being themselves.

Her live chat shows explore topics such as identity, relationships, self-love, and confidence.

Reflecting on her award, Sandra said: ‘Being named Second Runner Up for Speaker of the Year and a finalist for Diversity and Inclusion means the world to me.

‘These awards aren’t just mine. They’re for every person who has ever felt unheard or invisible. I hope it shows that voices from places like Dawlish can reach far beyond where they started.’