Sixth Form students raise £4,275 for PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide

Left to right: - Jasper Sykes, James Dobson, Stan Matthews, Daniel Murray and Alfie Turner. Photo: Photo: Christmas Crusaders

The students made and sold a range of products, including shot glass paddle boards, twinkling bottles, glass candle decorations and wooden reindeers. The products were made using recycled goods and the students managed to source bottles from restaurants, bars and the local rugby club; scaffolding planks from local scaffolding firms, and wood cuttings from the gardens of neighbours and friends. They then made the products after school and at weekends in a family workshop, packaged them, then attended school events, ladies luncheons and Christmas Fairs to sell their creative goods.

The group told us that “like PAPYRUS, we believe that no young person should have to struggle alone with thoughts of suicide, and for that reason we were delighted to raise money for such a worthy charity.”

Initially, the students were entered into a national competition by AKS Lytham, called “Tycoon in Schools”, run by successful entrepreneur and star of Dragons’ Den, Peter Jones CBE. This national enterprise competition for students allows participating teams to write a business plan, lend money, starts a business and trade, and compete with other student companies across the country.

First event - AKS Sixth Form open evening. Photo: Christmas Crusaders

However, what started as a bit of healthy competition against other groups, soon became something much more personal and important to them, as they found out more and more about the charity and how important it is to so many young people.

The trading window for competing schools closed mid January, and the boys were proud to come out top of the leaderboard for their competing window. They were given a £1,000 start up loan which they had to pay back to Tycoon in Schools, after which they made a staggering profit of £4,275, with a 5,552% return on investment.

The group said: “We thoroughly enjoyed competing in this national competition, had such fun as a group and learnt so much, but most importantly have been able to hand over more than £4,000 to this amazing charity. We feel very proud to have been able to fundraise for them. Thank you to our families and the community for all the support we were given and thank you to our teacher Graeme McIntrye and AKS Lytham for entering us into the competition and giving us the opportunity to do something for others.”

PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide is a UK charity dedicated to the prevention of suicide and the promotion of positive mental health and emotional wellbeing in young people.