A seven-year-old Pembrokeshire school girl is over the moon after winning a Blue Peter satellite design competition and picking up her prize live on TV.
Ava Flanagan from Haverfordwest was the youngest winner to be revealed live on the show on Friday.
Back in October she entered Blue Peter’s Awesome Orbit competition launched by Tim Peake.
The competition asked viewers to design the emblem for a satellite and say how it could be used.
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Ava designed a satellite called Where Bees Beelong. Her design is a Queen Bee over planet earth with sunflower petals going around the outside. The satellite would look for areas on earth where more flowers were needed, so that wildflowers could be planted there to encourage the bee population.
Ava won her age group and came third out of the thousands of entries received. At seven she was by far the youngest winner, with the other two winning entries being submitted by 12- and 13-year-olds.
“It was such an amazing experience,” said proud mum Emma. “She entered the competition back last October and we had a call in January to say she made the top 100, at that point we thought ‘wow that’s amazing’ as we knew there were thousands of entries.
“A few weeks later we had another call from the editor to say she came top of her age group and third overall. It was very exciting.”
Ava’s family were then invited to the Blue Peter studios for the live show on Friday, May 20.
Ava’s name will be engraved onto Prometheus-2, the first satellite ever to be launched from the UK this summer.
She was also presented with a printed and framed copy of her design and a prestigious orange Blue Peter badge.
On the live show Ava told Blue Peter presenter Adam that it was ‘amazing’ to have the orange badge, as it was her first ever badge.
“It was the best day ever,” said Ava of her experience.
Mum Emma added: “It’s such a great achievement. It was such a special day for her with memories she will cherish forever.”
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