A STEADY stream of children and families filtered through to the Community Hall at Christ Church to help raise money for the Great Western Hospital.

Brighter Futures is the GWH’s charity, which helps to fund treatments not available on the NHS budget including intra-operative radiotherapy for breast cancer patients.

Yesterday a group of 16 and 17 year olds from across the town, who have been taking part in the National Citizen Service (NCS) for the past three weeks, put on a community fun day to help raise money for the cause.

Charlotte Osborne, 16, from the town centre, was just one of the youngsters taking part in the scheme.

She said: “I wanted to take part in NCS for a number of reasons. For the first week I wanted to push my boundaries a bit and for the second week I wanted to learn some new skills and this week I wanted to give something back to the community. I've got a lot, so I just wanted to give something back to say thank you.

“I’ve really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it to everyone.

“I think the best thing about it was being able to meet so many new people.”

Visitors to theOld Town church could browse a number of stalls and take part in several different activities, including making a butterfly canvas, bric-a-brac, henna, face painting, teas, coffees and cakes, origami, guess the teddy, a treasure hunt, a lolly game and several others.

Leah Pickett, 16, from Liden, was one of the youngsters who enjoyed putting on the fun day, She said: “It’s been really good, I’ve done things I wouldn’t have had a chance to do otherwise like canoeing.

“I’ve also made lots of new friends and learned lots of new skills, and it’s more difficult to think of a reason why you wouldn’t do this.

“It’s just been really fun.”

Emma Osborne, Activi-ties Tutor with Engage For Life, which provides the three-week NCS programme, said that the youngsters had enjoyed taking part in the programme.

She said: “I think it’s gone really well and we’ve had a lot of people visit the fun day and enjoy it.

“The young people chose to raise money for Brighter Futures and as well as this they’ll be doing a sponsored swim and a bag pack.

“One of the main themes of the fun day was butterflies, because that’s the motif that Brighter Futures use.”