FOURTEEN-year-old charity champion Jamie Rigby is in the line-up for a top police award.

The Hindley schoolboy will represent the most caring and dedicated youngsters in the Wigan and Leigh area in the Greater Manchester Police Young Citizen of the Year 2001 final.

This week, Jamie, who has been working to help others since he was seven, was at Wigan Town Hall to collect his trophy and certificate from the mayor, Coun John Hilton.

Jamie, of Warwick Drive, a pupil at Standish High School, who is recovering from a broken leg sustained in a water-skiing accident, started his fund-raising by helping at events at his junior school, Hollins CP.

A sports fanatic, he did a sponsored golf drive which collected more than £600 to split between Aspull Church School, his own school, and the Handicapped Pilgrimage Trust.

Then, in 1997, he was touched by a story he read of a little boy who needed a replacement eye.

He decided to help and completed a 52-length sponsored slim at Hindley Pool to raise £600.

After that, he heard about a paralysed woman who needed a new wheelchair and bed, and did a sponsored cycle to collect £500 for her.

Now he bakes cakes and sells them for Childline, raising £11 per month to help cover the charity's cost of counselling for children over the phone.

He has recently taken part in a sponsored abseil and swimathon for the Marie Curie Cancer Charity, and is a volunteer for a mentoring course at his school.

His mum, Susan, said: "All the family is proud of him. He's a very busy lad. He's been frustrated throughout the school holidays because of his broken leg, and has been unable to take part in any activities -- so he's been learning the guitar and song writing."

A keen drummer, Jamie has interests in archaeology, Egyptology and auctioneering.

He will be up against 10 other nominees from across the county.

The winner will be announced on November 23.

Police community relations officer, PC Phil Gleave, said: "We are very impressed with the way in which young people across Greater Manchester have recognised a need within the community and have volunteered their time, energy and enthusiasm to meet those needs. It is going to be a very exciting final."