A PRISON handed over nearly £6,000 to a children's cancer charity yesterday.

The money was raised after six prisons across the country agreed to join Northallerton Young Offenders' Institution (YOI) in its bid to help charity CLIC Sergeant.

Sean Shelton and Susie Campbell organised a national prison service sports day, which took place on September 5, last year.

All seven prisons held sporting events with about 2,000 staff and offenders taking part overall.

Northallerton YOI, which is a relatively small prison with just 240 offenders, raised £700 from a half-marathon round the prison yard, and pool, snooker, football and ultra-fit competitions.

The prison's education department also organised a sports quiz to allow offenders who did not want to join in the physical competitions to still take part.

The Prison Services Charity Fund agreed to double the money the establishments raised and donated £3,000 to the cause.

Mr Shelton said: "This hasn't been done before in the prison service. We wanted to feed it in to as many establishments as possible to gain more money. We wanted to do something for CLIC Sergeant and we know we are limited here so we opened it up to other establishments.

"Staff got involved as well, including running round the inside of the prison yard. Pretty much everybody took part.

"I'm fantastically pleased with the result. It gives us the confidence to go forward again this year."

Danny Burke, national events manager for the charity, said: "It's fantastic that so many prisoners got involved. It's a pilot year so we are hoping more will get involved next year.

"It will make a huge difference to children with cancer in this area."

CLIC Sergeant is the UK's leading charity for children with cancer.

It helps families from the point of diagnosis until they no longer need their help.