Cambois six-year-old to switch on Bedlington Christmas lights after reindeer food raises cash for Blyth Wildlife Rescue

Ella Bond, from Cambois, has been making and selling environmentally friendly reindeer food, and has already raised £70 for Blyth Wildlife Rescue, where her mum volunteers.

The food is without chemicals and glitter so that it is safe for Santa’s reindeer and wild birds alike to snack on.

She will continue to sell her reindeer food at the lights switch on, as well as at her primary school and in Cambois this weekend.

Ella’s mum Zena Cowell, 43, said: “I'm just immensely proud of her, because she is very much into our wildlife and environmental things for being six years old.

“She cares a lot about the wildlife and it upset her every year when she went to shops and found glitter in reindeer food because glitter is really dangerous for birds, even the edible glitter.

“It really is an amazing thing for a child of that age to want to do something like that.

“She is helping the wildlife outside, she is keeping the magic of Christmas going, but she is also raising money for a wildlife charity that needs the help.”

Zena said her daughter’s love of the environment was passed down through her close relationship to her grandmother, who recently passed away.

She said: “Ella has gone through so many losses this year and we have just lost my mum a few months ago.

“She was very close to my mum and that is where this environmentally friendly thing came from. My mum, to me, to her.