A kind-hearted Southport girl will take part in the Miss Teen Great Britain 2022 Grand Final this weekend!
Ebony Barbé, aged 11, who loves acting, dancing and singing, has been chosen from hundreds of contestants across the nation thanks to her non-stop support of local good causes in Southport as well as raising funds and awareness for a cranio charity, inspired by her talented elder brother, Eden.
The Miss Teen Great Britain 2022 Grand Final takes place at The Globe Theatre in Blackpool this Saturday (15th October 2022).
Her proud Mum Jenny Barbé said: “Ebony has been very busy the past year with lots of charity fundraising and appearances as Little Miss Teen Merseyside, including donating and helping out in local food banks, visiting homeless shelters, dancing in nursing homes, drawing the raffle at a charity piano concert, visiting Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, bag packing for Together For Short Lives, donating to clothes banks and charity shops, doing sponsored walks, helping at a charity Jubilee coffee morning, singing at the Southport Music Festival coffee morning and making cakes to sell at our school for the Macmillan coffee morning!
“She has raised £453 for the Together For Short Lives charity, did bag packing at Co-Op supermarket and raised awareness for Eden’s condition.
“Ebony loves to perform on stage and has been in professional pantomimes, so she would love the opportunity to be up on stage in Blackpool, where she has danced in Ballroom and Latin competitions.
“She is an advocate for healthy looking girls, and doesn’t believe in body shaming.”
Ebony, a student at Stanley High School in Southport and a former pupil at Churchtown Primary School, has been a huge supporter of her brother throughout her life.
Eden is an award-winning ballroom dancer who was born with a rare condition which caused damage to his skull before he was born.
Ebony has been inspired by her brother to organise fundraising events and has also been a champion raising awareness of his condition.
In September she wrote about his experience during Cranio Awareness Month.
She said: “My brother Eden is 13 years old and was born with Craniosynostosis, meaning the sutures in his skull had closed too early when he was still in my Mum’s tummy.
“His brain was getting squashed and he could have had brain damage, blindness, deafness or even died.
“He had to have nine hours of surgery as a baby to reconstruct his skull, which saw the doctors taking it apart piece by piece and putting it all back together again like a jigsaw puzzle. He has a huge zigzag scar from ear to ear.
“During lockdown my brother and I raised almost £2,000 for
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital by doing a danceathon. It was to mark 10 years since his surgery.
“Recently it was my brother’s check-up and I went too, to gain more knowledge about the condition and raise Craniosynostosis awareness.
“I met maxillofacial surgeon Dr Richardson, a very clever man who operated on Eden and took his skull apart! We told him all about our fundraising for the Alder Hey charity and he was thrilled!
“I also got to meet some staff who work for the charity and explained all about Miss Teen GB and my fundraising for Together for Short Lives.
“I am very keen to make some care packages for the babies having this type of surgery to help with their hospital stay.
“I have been sharing some photos of my brother as a baby and other images through social media which may help to raise awareness of this rare condition which sometimes gets diagnosed far too late and the damage – brain damage – has already happened.”
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