Bowral High School student Jackson Haylock wins Graham Freudenberg Award

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Year 11 student Jackson Haylock submitted an entry titled 'Dignity Matters', about his personal experience on voluntary assisted dying in the national writing competition What Matters?

Initially set as homework by his English teacher Ms Chapman, Jackson didn't think he'd complete his work.

"I started the piece. I didn't think I'd get to the end of it. I was like, 'do I really want to finish this?'," he said.

"And then I stopped for a while. My teacher read it and she motivated me to finish it. She told me I had some potential, and that was sort of what helped me to finish it."

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Jackson said it was his teacher that encouraged him to enter the competition.

"She sort of pulled it up on the whiteboard and said I want you all to enter this," he said.

"I never thought that it would go any further than that. And it did. I'm grateful that she made us enter."

His submission was one of more than 4000 pieces of work submitted nationally.

"My teacher emailed me, and then that's how I found out I was shortlisted," he said.

"It was just sort of a secret kept from me that I'd gone further than that.

"Everyone knew apart from me for a while, but once everyone told me it was pretty nice."

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The Graham Freudenberg Award was presented to Jackson by former NSW Premier Bob Carr and former Bowral High School student and media personality Craig Reucassel.

Jackson said Craig was someone he looked up to in the media.

"I've seen and read a lot of his stuff," he said.

"I think he's great. It was great to meet him."

Jackson's teacher Ms Chapman said Jackson was an outstanding student and person.

"I'm immensely proud that his talent and intelligence have been recognised through his success in the What Matters? competition," she said.

"He's shown a lot of courage in sharing such a personal story and conveyed it in a way that is thought-provoking and insightful.

"It's heartening to see young people like him using their skills to explore contemporary challenges and issues, and I have no doubt he'll continue to achieve great things."

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In his powerful entry, Jackson said he was three years old when his father was diagnosed with terminal cancer and remembers the pain his father was in, which inspired him to write about voluntary assisted dying.

"My dad was sadly far from being alone in being diagnosed with a terminal illness and being sentenced not only to death but sentenced to an excruciating life until death arrived," he wrote

"Having experienced first-hand the pain my dad experienced in his final weeks and being told of the emotions that engulfed my family, I believe that we have a duty to those people that cannot live, and are yet to die. I believe that we have a duty to those people, to help them end their suffering sooner if they wish.

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"What matters to me is that people like my dad, who live in such pain, with the knowledge that their time is limited regardless, have the choice to comfortably end their life with medical assistance in New South Wales and all states in Australia because giving them the choice is the humane action."

You can read Jackson's full entry here.

Jackson was presented with the award by competition winner and former Bowral High School student Craig Reucassel.

What Matters? is a dynamic writing competition, and acts as a catalyst for young thinkers and young writers to develop a perspective, a point of view, on where we're heading as a society.

Inspired by Gough Whitlam's commitment to involving young people in shaping Australia's future, the competition is open to school students in years 5 to 12 from Australia. Responding to the simple question 'what matters', entrants are free to express their views on any matter they care about.

The competition, which has been running for 18 years, unearths a deep and intelligent passion for many threshold issues facing humanity and the nation, dispelling the notion of apathetic attitudes of young Australians towards politics and their role as citizens.

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