A Bolton woman who spent her teenage years in foster care has won a business award and has sent a message to people from backgrounds like hers.

Ashley White has spent the last 10 years working in dog grooming.

But in October 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, she took the plunge and opted to become self employed by setting up Signature Dog Grooming in Tonge Moor.

To begin with she was busy but was hit when lockdown restrictions came into force a short time later.

But the woman from Little Lever picked herself up again and her hard work was rewarded when she won self-employed businesswoman of the year at the Bolton Women in Business Awards 2023.

The mum-of-two said: “I have always worked in dog grooming but when I had my first child I decided to go at it on my own.

“I was pregnant and it was the middle of Covid.

“I was busy in the first month then we had the first lockdown.

“I am really busy now.

“I do not know who nominated me for the award, I think it might have been my husband but he denies it.

“I offer the best possible service, I am always learning new things at is it always changing.

“I also enter dog grooming competitions and I always come away with something.”

The 34-year-old was in foster care from the age of 12 and wanted to take the opportunity to send a message to others in that position.

She said: “I had a foster carer called Linda O’Connor. I am still in contact with her and I speak to her on the phone every day.

“I would say to people in foster care that they might have to work a little bit harder but they will get there.

“We don’t hear enough about people’s success who grew up from foster care, some people think we are all riff raff but we are not.

"I also want to get the message across to social workers that have worked with me in the past, people that have been involved in my life- you did it and I made it, that hard work paid off as well, they made me what I am today."