FIVE teenagers are working together to provide prom dresses for students who cannot afford them.

The biggest end-of-year event in the school calendar can cost hundreds of pounds and there is plenty of pressure on young people to splash the cash and make a big impression.

Hannah Cole and friends Tori Whiteley, Paige Webb, Megan Munro and Maddie Brown thought of a way to remove that cost barrier so that everyone has the chance to be the belle of the ball.

Hannah originally came up with the idea of Prom Revolution as a fashion show full of donated dresses that would have been held during this year's prom at Commonweal School.

But when lockdown put a stop to that, she launched an online non-profit organisation and visited bridal shops around Wiltshire to collect dresses of all shapes and sizes.

The 19-year-old said: "It was a bit cheeky, really, to go into Trousseaux Bridal and just ask for a dress - but they were amazing and gave me 50!

"It was a great start, and the response has been incredible so far. Lots of places said no but just as many have said yes, we've been lucky.

"We just want to help others go to prom without stressing about the cost because it can get ridiculous and girls do compare how much they have spent on dresses, it's a huge status thing.

"Next year, girls might not be able to spend so much on prom because lockdown has affected the budgets of so many families.

"Instead of spending all that money on a dress you only wear once, why not get a new dress at a price you can afford and make a donation to charity?"

Customers can pay what they want for the dress and each member of the team sends a portion of the money to a charity of their choice.

Hannah's is Autism Awareness and Noah's Ark, which helps autistic children, because her younger brother has autism.

There are currently 150 dresses available to send around the UK - and the group has just helped its first happy customer.

Hannah added: "The grandmother of a girl in Birmingham called asking for help because the dress her granddaughter bought was falling apart, she had been scammed.

"I spoke to the girl over FaceTime to get an idea of what she wanted and her sizes, had a look in our inventory and she picked the one she like best.

"We sent it off and a week later, we got a lovely message from her gran saying how happy she was with the dress. I hope this is the first of many people we help, I'm so excited.

"We're all 18 or 19, which is quite young for a non-profit group. It's been hard work and involved a lot of evening Skype calls and trips around the county to organise everything and get enough stock, but we've just finished our website and things are starting to take off.

"We all have some form of anxiety so it's been nice to see that there are so many good people out there who want to help."

The teenagers work on this in their spare time while juggling jobs and university studies, and have had socially-distanced photo shoots with the dresses in Lydiard Park and the Town Gardens.

Visit promrevolution.com