A yearly student bus pass was all Margaret needed to help focus on her scholarship and achieve her academic best without financial pressure.
Margaret is a fantastic young woman, who’s achieved deserved successes in her university studies to date. Graduating from University of Liverpool with a 2:1 in Law with Criminology – a huge accomplishment in itself – she then beat off the competition to be granted Manchester Metropolitan University’s inaugural Social Work Scholarship to study at Masters level!
However, her current situation is not reflective of her talent nor of the hard work she has put in. She was moved into a council property in Manchester as a young person with experience of Manchester’s Leaving Care Service, and the savings she had were needed to decorate and make the completely unfurnished flat liveable. Margaret works on zero hours contract for a support worker agency. These contracts make it difficult to find stable work at the best of times, let alone in the middle of a pandemic which hugely exacerbates her difficulties in saving after paying for rent & bills.
Her referee spoke highly to us, saying:
“Margaret is an amazing young woman and is driven to succeed despite all the odds”
The nature of agency work means she has to travel all across Manchester in order to fulfil work obligations. Margaret came to us asking for a grant of £250 for a discounted student ‘Unirider’ bus pass which will last the whole year and give her unlimited travel. This would save her hundreds of pounds over the course of the year opposed to buying weekly bus passes which she currently has to. Not only will this give her some immediate financial breathing room, it will allow her to focus on her incredible scholarship she has worked so hard for and give her the freedom to complete work without said financial pressure.
In her own words:
“Thank you so much to the We Love MCR Charity for granting me the award for my student yearly bus pass. It has been an extremely difficult year for many of us including myself and this award has been massive positive. The lockdown has had a massive impact on my mental health and financially so having this bus pass will allow me to go to the library and cafes to complete my university work and not feel as lonely. I am extremely grateful to the We Love MCR Charity for making this happen!”
We’re very proud to have been able to support Margaret, and give her the peace of mind by removing an unfair financial barrier that until now had been negatively affecting her clear progression in her studies. We’ll keep you updated on Margaret’s journey!