WATCH: Alesha Dixon reveals the reasons she backing the End Period Poverty campaign
She wants more people to know about it
Last updated 8th Mar 2018
Today is International Women's Day, and in support of the day pop star Alesha Dixon wants to draw attention to the End Period Poverty campaign which she is launching.
The campaign, in association with Always, is raising awareness of the number of girls and women who can't afford basic sanitary products. In a recent interview with Forth 1 Alesha discussed the latest research which has revealed that over 140,000 girls miss school because they cannot afford sanitary protection.
Alesha told our reporter Jo Parkerson that she felt shocked at the recent stats. "Obviously you know there are lots of underprivileged people, even within the UK, but I didn't realise just how many girls are missing school," she told us.
The latest research has also revealed that many of those who can't afford sanitary protection have had to resort to stealing so they can get what they need.
The Britain's Got Talent judge went on to explain that she thinks this is an issue that needs to be seriously addressed, which is why she is involved with this new campaign.
Watch our full interview with Alesha Dixon below:
As part of the campaign Alesha is asking people to do a normal weekly shop and buy an Always product, or share a photo on social media with the hashtag #EndPeriodPoverty, similar to the examples below.
For every purchase or share Always will then donate a product to the campaign. The hope is that at the end of the campaign, which runs until the end of April, they will have donated five million sanitary products.
Alesha went on to reiterate she really wants to keep girls in school and they shouldn't be missing it for this reason.