Carys speaks of her Pride a year on from top Shropshire award

Carys was so moved by the murder of five-year-old April Jones in 2012 that she decided to create a system which would prevent children from being abducted.

Her ingenious device scooped two awards at last year's ceremony at Shrewsbury Town's football ground.

• Carer Award

• Courage Award

• Environmental Champion

• Good Neighbour Award

• Learner Award

• Local Heroes Award

• Outstanding Bravery Award

• People’s Champion

• Special Young Person

• Overall Winner Pride of Shropshire Award

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Since scooping the prize, Carys has achieved a grade A in her design technology A-level — which she sat a year early — and now has her sights firmly set on putting her ground-breaking Invizzilead child proximity alarm into production.

She has also developed a second invention, the Sleep Sphere, which uses ultrasonic technology, oils and music to help insomniacs get to sleep.

Carys, now 18, said winning the Pride of Shropshire overall champion last year had led to her work getting a lot of recognition.

"A lot of people have heard about my work through the award, a lot of people have recognised what I have done," she said.

"I wasn't expecting it at all, it was a real surprise.

"At the moment I'm focusing on my remaining A-levels and getting to university, but once they are out of the way, I'm really hoping to get the Invizzilead into production."

Carys, who is a sixth-former at Llanfyllin High School was nominated after developing the Invizzilead, which uses radio waves to notify parents when their child goes beyond a pre-defined distance.

She was nominated by school governor Peter Lewis, who told how Carys had been moved by the heartache generated during the disappearance of April Jones in Machynlleth.

Five-year-old April disappeared while playing near her home on the Bryn-y-Gog estate in Machynlleth in October 2012. Mark Bridger, of Ceinws, is now serving a whole life sentence for her murder.

Carys took the Shropshire Youth Community Award for her innovative work, before making it a double success by scooping the overall Pride of Shropshire title.

Prior to that, she had already gained a national engineering award and £250 cash at the Big Bang Fair at Birmingham's NEC.

Carys' working prototype was deemed "most marketable".

Mr Lewis had said Carys was one of the school's budding engineers of the future, and demonstrated its high standard of teaching and education.

Her A-level success has taken her a step closer to realising that dream. This summer she will sit further A-levels in psychology and textiles, and his hoping to win a place at Loughborough University to study design.

She said said: "It was for my A-level project, I wanted to make something that made a difference to people.

"And when I heard about April's story that inspired me to do something. I found electronics very hard but when I had an idea in my head and researched into how often children go missing that's what drove me. It happens all the time and we don't realise so I wanted to help."

• Click here to nominate someone for the 2015 Pride of Shropshire Awards