Lockdown: This eight-year-old has baked 20,000 scones while stuck at home

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Riah, aged 8, has baked 20,000 scones during lockdown

Riah baked her first batch of scones at the start of lockdown to donate to her local foodbank.

She was worried about how old people who lived near her in Belfast, Northern Ireland - and their families living with them - might cope if they needed to self isolate.

So she started baking.

Riah's goal was to fill her kitchen table with scones, but she enjoyed baking so much that she's carried on and has now made more than 20,000!

Riah loves football and started baking because she didn't have anyone to play with during lockdown

Despite often spending around six hours each day making scones, the eight-year-old says she still finds time to do all her schoolwork.

Riah mum says that because she is autistic she sometimes gets obsessed with things, "so when she started baking scones she got obsessed with it".

One day she made 800 in just one day, but normally she produces around 1,500 scones a week, with her mum acting as her "assistant".

She drops the scones off at different food banks around the city, where they are added to food parcels.

Image source, Amanda Dobbin
Image caption,

Riah's first goal was to fill her kitchen table with all the scones she had made

Riah said it made her happy to know that elderly and vulnerable people who struggle to go to the shops were well fed during lockdown.

She said: "I know that elderly people like scones, so I thought it would be good to make them for them to have with some jam."

People have been so impressed with her efforts and the local mayor has given her a special prize to say thanks.