KEIGHLEY people are being encouraged to donate sanitary products for schoolgirls who cannot afford them.

Keighley Big Local has bought 15 collection boxes which will be placed in Co-op stores across the local area including Riddlesden, central Keighley and Oakworth.

The aim is to combat ‘period poverty’ which leads to girls and young women missing lessons because they do not have items like tampons, sanitary pads and underwear.

Big Local is also encouraging other local organisations to be collection points and has already signed up Airedale Enterprise Services and the Hainworth Wood Community Centre.

Big Local, a volunteer-run regeneration body in the lower Worth Valley, is supporting the Red Box Project which collects sanitary products across Bradford district.

Big Local volunteers met with Marie McCool from the Co-op to build on their existing relationship with the company through previous regeneration projects.

Fiona Thompson, a member of the Big Local Partnership, said the initiative would widen the Red Box catchment area.

She said: “This will help increase the number of donated sanitary products, which will be distributed in schools our young people attend.

“We wanted to do our bit to ensure that young women do not miss education because they cannot access sanitary products.”

A spokesman for Red Box said the project was based on ‘community kindness’ and the intention was to support more than 200 schools in the district.

She said: “We collect menstrual products to distribute to schools in Bradford for any young person in need.

“We collect pads, knickers, roll-ons and tampons, filling red boxes then distributing them to schools. People can contact us to arrange drop-offs.”

Red Box is also seeking money donations, which can be made through the Just Giving website by typing theredboxprojectbradford.