Most of the money was raised by club members at their Christmas 2007 collections at ASDA, Lancaster and rounded up to £400 from club resources. The Princes Trust works to help and support four key groups of young people – helping the unemployed gain skills to help them back into employment; to support those under achieving in education; to deal with issues facing young people leaving care and helping young offenders and ex-offenders to break the cycle of offending.

The Prince's Trust says that its top priority is to make sure young people are confident, independent and capable of making a positive contribution to their communities.

But increasingly, the difficulties many young people face are complex and interconnected, requiring a similarly complex combination of assessment, advice, personal development, education, training, work and financial help.

Rotary Club president, Graham Haddington said: "Our club believes strongly that young people are the future of our community, but we also recognise that there are many young people, who will benefit from the support and services offered by organisations such as The Prince's Trust.

"A donation like this is an investment in our young people."