A TALENTED schoolgirl from Oxfordshire won a ‘design a wheelchair’ competition with a creation inspired by her grandmother.

Ellie Roberts-Day, a pupil of Lord Williams’s School, Thame, stole judges’ hearts with her entry to the Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research (SMSR) competition, and has been announced as the secondary school category winner.

Primary and secondary school pupils across Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire submitted their inventions made out of cardboard, paper mache, Lego or recyclable materials.

Ellie, whose creation was inspired by her ‘Nanna’ who has MS and is confined to a wheelchair, said that was the reason that pushed her to take on the creative challenge.

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She said: “My nanna has severe MS and relies fully on her wheelchair .

“However, her wheelchair is very restricting to what she can do and so she gets really upset and frustrated that she cannot do things that everyone else can and she likes to be independent.”

Ellie is one of the two competition winners who were awarded a £50 voucher for WHSmith for their sterling efforts.