Broughton teenager creates Poundland Christmas bag to support charities

Ava with the team at Poundland where she launched her charity bag.

A teenager from Broughton has created a Christmas bag in collaboration with a well-known retailer to support charities.

Ava Jolliffe, 17, a wheelchair user and deafblind artist entered a competition to design a charity bag for Poundland.

She is supported by the current Poundland charity partner, Whizz Kidz, an organisation which helps young wheelchair users.

Whizz Kidz’ service users submitted designs for the bag, with Ava’s snowman winning the most votes on social media.

She launched the bag at the start of this month, and it has already sold 25,000 units. Ten pence from the sale of every bag, which costs £1, will be donated to the Foundation.

Ava with her winning Christmas bag design.

Ava’s mum, Laura said: “She just goes from strength to strength challenging the misconceptions around being deafblind and addressing negativity around being deafblind disabled.

“Such an inspiration to everyone, she continues to advocate for her peers and show that her positive energy can help make a difference to others.”

Julian Hare, deputy director of fundraising and communications at Whizz Kidz said: “As a long-term charity partner of the Poundland Foundation, we are thrilled to see the creativity of young wheelchair users come to life with Ava’s snowman bag for life design which will kick off Poundland’s latest fundraising campaign.

“As the UK’s leading charity supporting young wheelchair users – we create opportunities for
young wheelchair users to get the equipment, skills and confidence to go further.

“We hope that Ava’s bag design will raise valuable funds and challenge perceptions of what disabled young people across the UK can achieve.”

Alongside launching her charity bag, Ava also attended the National Diversity Awards (NDAs) in Liverpool.

Out of 90,000 nominations, Ava was down to the last eight in her class.

Laura, added: “She was thrilled to be invited and to be in such amazing company with so many wonderful, inspiring and talented people.”

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