A CHARITY set up in memory of two Tadley teenagers who died in a car crash has won £50,000 in a television contest.

The Jake and Lee Tadley Memorial Fund beat a rival good cause to the cash windfall by getting the most votes in The People’s Millions contest, which ran on ITV Meridian last week.

The five-figure cash boost puts the charity team well on the way to redeveloping a skate park for young people in Tadley.

Donna Fowler, chairman of the memorial fund, said: “I was gobsmacked – I’m absolutely thrilled!”

The charity was set up in memory of 18-year-old Jake Burden and 16-year-old Lee Robinson who died after the car in which they were travelling crashed at Gales Garage on the A340, near Sherborne St John, in August 2007. The friends were regulars at the skate park in Tadley Common Road, Tadley.

Jake’s mother Jane Cook – who is on the memorial fund committee which now has £80,000 of their £110,000 target – said: “We’re just overwhelmed with the support we have had.”

The charity was on a shortlist of six regional causes in the annual Big Lottery Fund contest. Two projects went head-to-head each night on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in a bid to gain the greater number of public votes and the telephone voting lines were open from 9am until midnight. Each cause also had a short video about their project aired during the prime-time ITV Meridian evening news broadcast.

On Tuesday, the Tadley campaigners were competing with Park Community School in Havant, which had a project to build a synthetic ice rink.

Reliving the moment they found out that their cause had probably polled the most phone votes, Mrs Fowler said the fund committee were all together when a member of the Meridian team rang.

She said: “He asked if we could get our supporters to meet up, so I said ‘have we won?’, and he said he couldn’t tell me but that it was in our best interests to get together at midday, and I started to cry. I told the others ‘I think we’ve done it’.”

The committee gathered a number of Tadley youths involved in the fund at The Hurst Community College, in Brimpton Road, Baughurst. They also picked up Lee’s eight-year-old brother, Connor Spicer Robinson, from Burnham Copse Junior School, and Jake’s brother, Connor Cook, also eight, from Bishopswood Junior School.

Mrs Fowler said: “They were all really worried at this stage, then Meridian presenter Sangeeta Bhabra came in and said hello and asked if we were having a good day, and if it could be made better – and then she gave us this massive cheque!

“The kids just screamed and cheered. They went mad – we didn’t know what to do with ourselves!”

She added: “I want to thank everyone in Tadley and Basingstoke for phoning in and having faith in the cause. This time next year, the skate park will be done. We hope to have it ready by the third Jake and Lee memorial jam event in August, but we’ll see.

“I also want to say a big thank-you to the Tadley Youth Club members. They did a lot of pushing and leaflet dropping for us – they were brilliant.”

Alison Rowe, head of the Big Lottery Fund in the south east region, said: “This is a great result for the people of Tadley, and it just goes to show what groups can achieve when they have the support of their community behind them.”

The charity team already have planning permission from Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council for the project, which will involve replacing ramps, skating and BMX equipment, and removing the existing surface and replacing it with a powder-floated concrete base. All that stands in their way now is to raise the outstanding £30,000.

Anyone who would like to make a donation to the fund, or who would like to know more about it, can call Mrs Fowler on 07780 991066.