MANY young people are struggling to find work at the moment, but desperate Hanna Evans has found a quirky way to make herself stand out from the crowd.

Hanna, 19, is so fed up with being unemployed and on benefits that she has decided to stand on the Magic Roundabout every weekend with a cardboard sign asking for work.

The Pinehurst resident decided to go down the route as the last resort after she heard a woman had tried it in another town and had received several job offers.

Hanna said: “I will be doing it in the rush hours or at least for five hours at the weekend but I would like to do it all day to literally get myself out there and literally be seen by everyone who goes past.

“It’s like another step to looking for work. You have got looking on websites to look for work, going to shops to look for work, and it’s another thing you think of to look for work.

“I’m very confident, I’m not shy to put myself out there and it’s the last thing I thought of because I want to get off benefits.

“I’m willing to do any job. I want to come back off benefits completely so I do need full time work ideally but I will take anything. If I can get two part-time jobs I will take both.”

Hanna, who attended Kingsdown and Commonweal Schools, says she was made homeless just before her 16th birthday and spent about the next three years living wherever she could – even sleeping rough.

Her life changed in May when she moved into a double room in Broadgreen with her partner Jason Winchcombe, 21, and then six months ago the pair relocated to a flat in Spruce Court, Pinehurst.

Hanna, who has a NVQ in ICT, left a job as a part-time sales assistant at Clarks shoe shop, in Swindon town centre and has been unable to find work.

In a bid to find work and get off Jobseekers’ Allowance, Hanna plans to go out on to the Magic Roundabout at weekends with a sign saying “Looking for work, can you help?”

She said: “It’s been absolutely terrible. The stress that you have and all the sleepless nights. I just want to get out, get a job and work.

“And when you get asked for an interview, you are so happy and then when you get turned down or you never hear back, it’s disappointing.”

To contact Hanna, call 07842 629414 or email Tybo_spacecake@ hotmail.co.uk.