TWO Cumbrian charities are in the running to win a large sum of money.

The money, part of £25,000 being handed out to local good causes, is part of a £125,000 drive across the UK headed by the charitable arm of our parent company, The Gannett Foundation.

After asking our readers to nominate their favourite charities online, more than 1,000 votes were cast.

The two charities with the most votes were Cumbria Wildlife Trust and Jigsaw, Cumbria's Children's Hospice.

Vanessa Sims, Regional Group editor of Newsquest Cumbria, said: "Newsquest Cumbria is excited to be able to offer support for such worthy charities and great local causes.

"It’s now over to Cumbrians to cast their vote. Every vote has the potential to change people and animal's lives.”

The lion's share of the votes went to local - rather than regional - charities.

Now it's up to you again to choose who will win some of the money.

For four weeks, readers will be invited to collect tokens from our newspapers which can then be sent to collection points across our region or posted. Each token collected will then be used to allocate cash to the nominated charity – so if your favourite charity collects 50% of all to tokens collected, it will receive 50% of the money!

There are various collection points for these tokens:

Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Plumgarths, Crook Road, Kendal, Cumbria LA8 8LX

Morrisons, Queen Katherines Avenue, Kendal LA9 6DU

Booths, Wainwrights Yard, Kendal LA9 4DP

Railway Stores, Station Square, Grange-over-Sands LA11 6EH

Booths, Lakeland, Parkhouse, Park Road, Milnthorpe LA7 7AD

Booths, The Old Station, Victoria Street, Windermere LA23 1QA

THE CHARITIES

Jigsaw is Cumbria’s Children’s Hospice. It provides support to children and young adults with life limiting conditions throughout the county.

The children’s hospice provides one to one care for children and young adults with life limiting illnesses, as well as extending the care and support to their families.

Jigsaw’s home-from-home environment allows the nurses to match the children and young adults home routine as closely as possible, ensuring a smooth, relaxing and peaceful transition between the home and hospice environments.

Cumbria Wildlife Trust describes itself as the only voluntary organisation devoted solely to the conservation of the wildlife and wildplaces of Cumbria.

The Trust stands up for wildlife, creates wildlife havens, and seeks to raise environmental awareness.