Southend girl litter picks across city for a month in fundraiser

Lauren Martin, from Southend, picked litter across Southend and Leigh every day during August and September raising £1,000 for One Love Soup Kitchen.

• As we come to the end of 2022, we have selected eight children from across south Essex who have gone above and beyond this year to help others or achieve something great.

She collected thousands of pieces of litter over the month, and most days would collect more than 100 pieces a day.

Lauren said she wanted to do this because “One Love needed money to help more homeless people” and “because litter hurts the animals and environment”.

She knew about the Southend charity; One Love after her Grandad had previously done some fundraising for them.

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Her mum, Naomi Philips, 31, said: “I am so proud of her, I can’t even put into words. She is so kind and caring.”

The One Love Project said that Lauren is “an inspirational little lady.”