A young person in By the Bridge has received an award for her outstanding work with other young people in care.
Abbey is among seven people from the UK and Ireland whose achievements have been recognised at the Rotary Young Citizen Awards in Manchester.
Launched in 2007 in association with the BBC News Channel, the awards recognise young people under the age of 25, who have demonstrated their commitment to citizenship through various activities.
Abbey is only fifteen years old but has, however, used her own life experience to provide support and advice to other children in care, being that Abbey herself is in care and has had several foster families.
Wanting to offer guidance and someone to talk to for young people in a similar position, she signed up to volunteer with the Independent Visitors Scheme, a befriending service on offer to all those in care.
Abbey said “Before I came into care, I didn’t really have a childhood; I raised my two younger brothers. Care changed my life. I want to make sure that every child has a voice and loves being in care. Showing [others] the positive side of care instead of the negative side"
"All in all I am very grateful to everyone around me who has supported me or helped me whilst in care as well as everyone who has contributed to my recent success and awards and am overwhelmed by all of this attention.
I couldn’t of done anything I have done over the last year without the help of my wonderful foster parent Jayne, the support of my Independent visitor Janice, Sue Wakefield who nominated me for the Inspirations Young Woman of the Year Award 2016, the Rotary club for their nomination for the recent ‘Young Citizen Award’ and my whole support network of friends and family.”
