YOUNG Citizen of the Year Brett Ratcliff has spent his weekend planning how to divide his £1,000 prize money between charities.

The 13-year-old from Westhoughton was named Greater Manchester Police's Young Citizen of the Year at a special ceremony on Friday night.

Brett already spends much of his spare time raising cash for charities, and so he was delighted with his windfall.

"I am excited. The publicity this will bring will help me raise even more," he said.

Award judges were impressed with Brett's fundraising enthusiasm as well as the community work he is involved in, including setting up an anti-bullying club, visiting a teenager who suffers from agoraphobia, helping a local single mum with odd jobs and helping to care for his younger disabled brother.

At the time of winning the award, Brett was already working out ways in which he could raise cash to pay for children's parties at Salford Women's Aid and the Fort Alice refuge, as well as buying a camcorder for a Drop-In centre. Now he is delighted that the prize money will enable him to put his plans into action even sooner.

Brett will enjoy a reward for his efforts. Part of the Young Citizen of the Year award is a £1,000 holiday with matching spending money, plus a VIP day out with Manchester United.

One of Brett's biggest fans, the Mayor of Westhoughton, Cllr Jo Worthington, said the title could not have gone to a better person.

"I am absolutely delighted. He is a wonderful little boy and does it all on the quiet," she said.

Brett's mum, Gaynor, said she was "very proud" of her unassuming son.

"When what he does is just part of his normal life you don't see at as being anything different. He never expected to win," she said.

His most ambitious project to date involves collecting useful goods and equipment to send out to children in Belarus.