Little Miss Sunshine

Dressed like a typical student, in jeans and Ugg boots, with her hair pulled up in a ponytail, Emily Cummins confesses that she loves listening to ridiculously cheesy music by the likes of Britney Spears and Girls Aloud and enjoys watching the X-Factor with her friends.

But this 21-year-old business management student, moved by the plight of the youngsters and families she witnessed during her gap year in the townships of Namibia, has also got much weightier matters on her mind.

An innovative and award-winning designer, who started helping her grandfather make things in his garden shed from the age of four, she has already created and marketed a number of products which are improving people's lives in the developing world.

Emily was still at school in Skipton when she won a design award for her ingenious water-bucket carrier for use in Africa.