An Ealing woman who founded a company providing sanitary products for the homeless has been named in a list of top 50 female entrepeneurs in the UK.
Hayley Smith, who has lived in Ealing Common for over two years, was placed in the Free Office Finder list by freeofficefinder.com last month after she founded Flow Aid in 2013.
Judges told her they were inspired by how she was running the charity, along with her own Essex-based PR company Boxed Out, on her own at such a young age.
The 28-year-old founded Flow Aid after reading an article which highlighted the lack of sanitary products available for free.
She said: "I was working at a PR company and and I realised that I had been there for a while and I realised I wanted to do things a lot differently.
"I was reading an article about the issues that homeless women faced.
"I realised there was little about (free sanity products for the homeless). You can get condoms for free but nowhere can you get sanitary products.
"It is something people are not willing to give away for free, especially the government because they lose the tax and homeless charities do not have the budget."
Flow Aid, in partnership with Miss England, delivers around 100 sanitary towels per month to homeless charities Ealing Churches, Acton Homeless Concern and St Mungo's Broadway.
Ms Smith added she was "shocked" at being named in the list and said her next goal was to expand Flow Aid to distribute more than 100 sanitary products per charity.
She added: "I was really pleased and shocked, and I think it is flattering that someone was paying that much attention to what I was doing.
"I think the best story I had was someone at Ealing Churches, who was the only woman there and she had recently been made homeless.
"She was so grateful because she said 'I have nothing' and 'how am I going to be able to afford these products?'
"They were at the bottom of the priority list".
