DISADVANTAGED young people with alcohol problems will get help thanks to a £73,000 grant from Comic Relief.

The cash has been given to the Abingdon Bridge charity and comes just in time after trustees began to have concerns over its future.

In recent years the support centre, based in Bridge Street, Abingdon, has had to eat into its reserves after grants and donations failed to cover costs.

But Comic Relief’s cash injection, along with other grants the centre has secured recently, will ensure the centre can continue to help.

Centre trustee Derek Pooley said: “The Comic Relief grant is marvellous. It will make sure we can step up our work on alcohol problems without spending any of our general funds.

“But we’re still left short of money to support the whole range of what we do. We’re therefore especially grateful for these donations.

“They’re marvellous but there aren’t enough of them.”

The grant will pay for alcohol worker Justin Langford to work with teenagers with drink problems for the next three years.

Mr Langford, 35, said: “I’m over the moon about this cash, because we were really struggling to raise money.

“It will pay for the work I do, helping the youngsters, and hopefully fund an outreach worker to go out into the community.

“We want to turn these kids into mentors for each other. Abingdon doesn’t have a high crime rate, but there’s a lot of antisocial behaviour caused by kids drinking.”

In recent weeks the centre has received £5,000 from Christ Church, in Northcourt Road, while Boulevard Swing, a jazz band based in Drayton, held a concert and made nearly £5,000 for the centre.

Abingdon and district primary schools have donated nearly £200 and Vale of White Horse District Council gave £5,000.

A Comic Relief spokesman said: “Work with young people is at the very heart of Comic Relief.

“While many young people lead fulfilling lives, others face challenges and experience problems they find difficult to solve alone.”

The centre supports young people with everything from friendly chats to help with job applications and one-to-one counselling.