Young Lancaster businesswoman scoops top regional award

Each year, the Lancashire Business View Sub36 Ones to Watch Awards recognise just 25 talented young people, under 36 years old, nominated from around the county who “are already making a big impact in the business world and have even brighter futures ahead of them”.

And this year, Megan Pickles, project manager for The Growing Club CIC in Lancaster, is one of the talented winners, chosen by a panel of Lancashire business leaders.

The Growing Club is a social enterprise that provides employment and business skills training for women.

Megan joined The Growing Club in 2022 as a trainee, after completing a Master’s Degree in Sustainability and Environmental Management at the University of Leeds.

Megan is motivated by social change and has already made a great impact in her time at The Growing Club where, in just over a year, she was promoted to project manager.

Megan’s achievements at The Growing Club include: raising thousands of pounds from local companies in Auction of Promises to be used as seed funding to support women on benefits looking to start their own businesses; managing Angels Den to connect budding female entrepreneurs from The Growing Club’s Roots and Shoots programme with the local business community for skills support; leading the NHS-funded Winter Survival programme supporting 100 plus women; and securing funding from Rosa, a grant-making charity that funds specialist organisations to help make the UK a fairer, safer place for women and girls for a campaign on positively supporting neurodivergent women and harnessing talent in the workplace, leading to the first Neurodiversity in Women Conference in Lancaster in November.

“Getting this award is amazing,” said Megan. “I’ve learned so many things working at The Growing Club with some fantastic women, and one of the most important things is that it is way more powerful to achieve change from community up rather than top down.”

Jane Binnion, managing director at The Growing Club, said: “We are all so proud of Megan. While she has been with us, her confidence has grown massively and she feels for the first time her strengths have been recognised and utilised.”

"Being dyspraxic and having ADHD, she is really pushing through to identify her strengths with a lot more faith in her own abilities.”