YOUNG sailors in Thornbury have been thrown a £2,000 lifeline to help the future of their group.

The Thornbury Sea Cadets were recently given the £2,000 grant by Oldbury Power Station to help with a massive refurbishment project at the group’s headquarters.

The group, which has 25 members aged between 10 to 18, meets up to three times a week at premises on Gloucester Road, however, after years of use the building is now in need of massive refurbishment to enable the cadets to keep using it.

Work that needs to be done includes urgent repairs to the building’s roof as well as new doors and windows.

The Thornbury Sea cadets have now launched a massive fundraising appeal to help bring their premises up to date.

Rachel Gould, Sea Cadet Sub Lieutenant, said: "The building is going to need significant work over the next few years if we are going to keep using it. It’s going to be a big job with lots of short and long term phases to make sure everything gets done properly."

The Sea Cadets are an uniformed organisation with the aim to develop good young citizenship in young people using the values and traditions of the Royal Navy.

To help with the first phase of the project of repairing the roof the cadets have been given an initial cash injection by Oldbury Power Station’s Site Stakeholder Group's Socio-Economic Fund.

Tracy Owen, of the Oldbury Power Station, said: "Thornbury Sea Cadets provide a valuable input to the skills of youngsters in our local community. Here at Oldbury Power Station we put great emphasis on training and development and so it's a pleasure to donate to a project which supports this viewpoint."

Ms Gould said: "We are delighted that Oldbury Power Station has helped us to fund the roof repairs. The building needs to be in a good state of repair in order for us to carry out our training activities and the repaired roof will certainly allow us to continue for many more years to come."