A ROYAL award has been given to Bolton Wanderers for helping change young lives across the town.

The club has scooped a Prince’s Trust accolade for supporting the youth charity’s work in Bolton.

A star-studded awards ceremony in Liverpool saw Wanderers receive the Sellafield Ltd Partnership Innovation Award.

It recognises the Trust’s partner organisations for their innovation in supporting its work, which aims to help 5,000 young people in the North-west this year.

The club has been working alongside the charity to deliver its Get Started With Football programme for five years.

The scheme helps socially excluded young people by using football to develop the skills, confidence and motivation to progress with education, training and employment. Youngsters learn discipline, responsibility, commitment and leadership.

Wanderers has helped the Trust to extend the programme into prisons and getting other clubs involved.

It has also introduced new elements, including sections on drugs, sexual health, community cohesion and bullying.

Senior members of staff deliver the programme with Paul Maloney, community manager, delivering the prison-based schemes and setting standards. He said: “Winning this award is a massive achievement. It’s great to know that Wanderers are giving something back to the community because that is important to the club.

“It’s fantastic that we are able to engage with young people through the power of football and help them to transform their lives.”