When Ally Elouise attended her school prom 12 years ago it was a night to remember. She had got the dress she wanted and had a "great time" with her friends celebrating the end of their high school journey. Then just 15 years old she didn't think much about the reasons some children in her year didn't come to the pivotal event.
"I thought they just didn't want to," said the 27-year-old. "But obviously as I got older and became an adult I looked back on it and I realised that the people that didn't go to the prom were probably from a family that was struggling financially."
This sad realisation only occurred to Ally, who is from Llandudno, several years later while she was studying law at Liverpool John Moores University. It was around this time that she watched a documentary with her dad about poverty in Britain, which highlighted the financial barriers some children face when attending prom. "One of the clips on it was a mum taking her daughter to charity shops to look for a prom dress. They only had two choices, basically, and she didn't really like them. All her friends were shopping online at prom shops, so she wasn't looking forward to it. I don't remember the rest of the programme but that scene really stood out."
