Milton Keynes shopping centre vows to provide free sanitary products for female shoppers

The centre:mk shopping centre is tackling period poverty by making free sanitary products available to any shopper that needs them.

Baskets of products will be provided in the centre’s ladies toilets and people can help themselves.

Visitors can also go to Guest Services and ask for a “package for Sue” and receive a full pack of sanitary products in a plain bag.

The shopping centre, which attracts more than 22 million visitors a year, has launched the scheme in partnership with Milton Keynes charity, Girl Pack, to mark Period Poverty Awareness Week.

One in ten girls in the UK struggle to afford period products and over 137,000 children have missed a day of school because of this. More people are finding period products increasingly inaccessible, leading to girls missing out on vital education, activities and the already overwhelming nature of menstruation becoming even more of a barrier.

Centre Director, Kevin Duffy, said: “We believe that everyone should have access to period products when they need them, so we are very excited to announce our partnership with Girl Pack and that we will be providing free sanitary products in the centre.

"We hope that this scheme will relieve some of the financial burden of periods on our guests and get people talking more about period poverty.”

Jenny Head, spokesperson from Girl Pack said: “So far this year we have provided over 5000 period products to various places across Milton Keynes. Girl Pack are proud to be working with centre:mk to support everyone’s period! This campaign and partnership will go a long way to raising awareness of period poverty.”

Girl Pack is a charity from Milton Keynes that provides period products to schools, organisations and businesses in the local area.

It was formed five years ago by two teenagers, Paige Pilkington and Megan Head, and their mums who had noticed the problems that their friends were facing gaining access to sanitary items.

The charity runs entirely on donations of funds and products and volunteers to put together the packs and deliver them. For more information on how you can help, visit their Facebook page .