A Castletown man is representing the UK at a large international celebration of Scouts, hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico.

Jay Thompson, from the island, is playing a key role at the 24th World Scout Jamboree in West Virginia in support of young people from across the globe.

The event was opened by UK Chief Scout Bear Grylls, who is well-known for being a TV survival instructor.

This year’s event focuses on the theme: "Unlock a new world", which looks at how scouts and others can create a sustainable world together.

For the two weeks Jay has been working as a mental health nurse to provide a listening ear for youth people.

He is part of the International Service Team (IST). This is a multinational team of adults who volunteer to spend their summer holiday as part of the jamboree.

There are 6,000 volunteers with almost 1,000 coming from across the UK.

Chris Foster of the Scout Association said: ’Their job is to make the jamboree happen and the IST make every day a little easier, without always getting noticed.

’Some of them are instructors planning and running activities for the tens of thousands of Jamboree participants. ’Others are doctors, caterers or IT consultants.’

Jay said: ’I have already met lots of people from around the world and it is a great opportunity to come together and understand other people.

’I am keen to raise awareness of the importance of understanding mental health issues better.’

On the day of opening the event, Bear Grylls said: ’World Scout Jamborees only happen every four years and tens of thousands of Scouts attend each one.

’They are incredible festivals of peace, friendship and adventure.

’Young people will make friends for life with people from over 150 countries, experience different food, language and culture while learning new skills.

’It will be the journey of a lifetime.’

Tomorrow (Friday) marks the last day of the 2019 jamboree.

The scouts is the world’s largest youth movement that was founded on August 1, 1907.

In the UK, Scouts is supported by The Scout Association, helping 7,000 Scout groups across the country to give opportunities to more than 475,000 young people aged six to 25 years.

Today there are more than 638,000 individuals actively involved in Scouts in the UK.

The scouts enables both boys and girls to have fun and adventure while developing skills for life.

These skills include practical, character and employability skills with more than 200 activities being offered by Scouts around the UK, such as canoeing, caving, coding and community projects.

This is supported by over 163,000 adult volunteers.

Across the globe Scouts has over 50 million members and operates in nearly every country in the world.