NOSTALGIA: Boston Grammar School prize-giving 1994

Helen was a special guest at the event, along with her father, former Parry Gold Medal winner John Sharman.

The Sheffield-native spoke to youngsters about her eight days orbiting the Earth, mostly on board the Mir Space Station, which took place as part of Project Juno in May 1991.

Helen, who today works full-time at the Department of Chemistry, Imperial College, London, was selected from almost 13,000 applicants for the mission.

The prize-giving event was held at the Centenary Methodist Church, in Red Lion Street, Boston.

It saw headteacher John Neil speak about the fact that nationally girls were performing better at GCSE than boys, regardless of the type of school.

He put this down, in part, to ‘the apparent need of many adolescent boys between the ages of 14 and 16 to conform to mediocrity: to a culture where it is not ‘cool’ to achieve’.”

He also referred to the ‘continuing obsession’ of the media with school performance in the form of league tables.