TWO passionate pupils from Shebbear College have launched a campaign to raise awareness of period poverty in the UK.

Lily Down and Sav Whitechurch, both 13, have started up their own business, Naturally Individual, selling monthly period subscription boxes and donating a box to a girl or woman suffering from period poverty for every box sold.

The girls were inspired to take action after being asked to come up with a new business idea for a Dragon’s Den project in their English class last year.

‘We were trying to think of an idea that wasn’t necessarily about making money but could help people too.’ said Sav.

‘We had both recently seen the news about period poverty and felt passionate about this issue so we thought, let’s make this our business idea.’

The girls gave a presentation to their fellow students, half expecting them to laugh.

‘When we actually stood up in front of everyone, people took it seriously. They didn’t laugh, we didn’t laugh — this really highlighted to us that this is serious and we need to take it further.’ said Lily.

‘We decided to start approaching companies to find out if anyone could help us out with providing products to get us started and enable us to run a trial,’ Sav commented.

‘We have had such a positive reaction from everyone and some companies have even sent us products already.’

Packaging company Davpack sent 50 free boxes to help with a trial, Lil-lets has provided sanitary products and Waitrose has sent a giftcard enabling the girls to buy the products required.

Lily and Sav have also raised more than £800 towards their target of £1,500 on their page Naturally Individual on gofundme.com site in just five days.

‘I am inspired by Lily and Sav’s passion for this incredibly widespread issue,’ said Caroline Kirby, head at Shebbear College.

‘It is so important to raise awareness about period poverty in the UK and I am incredibly proud of these two girls, who, at just 13 years old, have broken the silence and embarrassment that all too often surrounds this topic and have come up with a brilliant idea to help women and girls across the country.’