Faith is important in the lives of many young people and for 25-year-old primary school teacher, Bridget Penellum, Catholicism has enabled her to touch the lives of hundreds of people and help them in a very practical way.

When love and kindness shines out of a person they are able to make the whole room feel at ease and bring light in to the lives of people who are suffering. Miss Penellum is a young lady who is just so - she wants to help people and care for them in any way she can and attributes her happiness in life to her faith. She said: "My faith in God has always been a rock and anchor in life, it gives me a clear direction and has instilled good values in me from a young age. Being part of a church is important for everyone because it is a community that can support each other through the hard times and the good."

Miss Penellum has been volunteering at the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, set in a valley in the southwestern part of the Hautes-Pyrenees, for the last 10 years. The shrine is a popular pilgrimage for Catholics from all over the world because it is reported that the Virgin Mary appeared there to a poor shepherd girl at the Grotto of Massabielle in Lourdes. Miss Penellum said: "I have been volunteering in Lourdes every summer since I was 15, in between school and university. What I mainly do there is push people in wheel chairs down to the waterfall so that they can touch the holy water there. I love going because it gives me the chance to help people who might not be able to go there without aid."

As a member of the Lancaster Diocese, Miss Penellum takes part in many organised events with the church as she can and has lifelong friends that she has made there. She has also worked with nuns in Croatia and spent one year after university working in Craig Lodge, a family house of prayer and Catholic Retreat in Argyll, Scotland. She said: "I loved working at Craig Lodge, we looked after people who might be lonely or going through a difficult time and every day we had morning prayer, bible study and mass. It was fascinating to study the catechism and after that I thought seriously about devoting my life to God and becoming a nun. I had often thought about it when working in nunneries abroad but recently I decided that I also wanted to be a mother and a teacher so I moved home to Millom and I am now teaching at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Primary School in Barrow."