Dylan Buller was nominated for Wales Coach/Volunteer of the Year at the 2024 StreetGames Sport for Development Awards and a Young Person award at the St David Awards.

During his time at HMP YOI Parc, Dylan worked with the staff at the Young Persons Unit and with charity Dallaglio RugbyWorks - an official charity partner of The British & Irish Lions - to turn his life around.

Through engaging with the rugby-based charity, Dylan went on to to secure a job as an assistant rugby coach with them and continues to work with ‘at-risk’ young people at Parc, using his own experiences to deter them from a path leading back to the justice system. He has now landed a role as a Mentor in Neath Borough Council.

Dylan, who saw his time at Parc as a chance to better himself and through working with Dallaglio RugbyWorks, gained coaching, mentoring, communication and teamwork experience and trialled new activities for young people to get involved with such animal care and gardening.

Such was the impact Dylan was having with the charity; he was granted a Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL) whilst still serving his sentence in order to deliver a speech at a Dallaglio RugbyWorks event.

It allowed him to share his story and inspire others like him who might be facing similar difficulties.

Dallaglio RugbyWorks have since described Dylan as “an invaluable member of the team”.

The charity’s work in the prison estate aims to use rugby to improve participants’ physical and mental health and wellbeing and equip them with life skills to prepare them for release into the community.

In being nominated for the Coach/Volunteer of the Year at the StreetGames Sport for Development Awards, he is looking to follow in the footsteps of Dallaglio RugbyWorks coach Ryan Davies who won the award in 2023.