Bradford's oldest children’s charity is looking for Fairy Godmothers and fathers to help it spread festive cheer.

The Cinderella Club has been supporting the district's disadvantaged youngsters for 125 years and in its special anniversary year wants to make it a Yuletide to remember.

The club's unpaid committee has come up with the idea of organising a Secret Cindy to help it continue its work all the year through – not just at Christmas.

It is asking people to become a Secret Cindy this Christmas by hosting a coffee morning, having a dress-down day at work, rattling a tin around the office or just dip pinginto their pocket to help it help a Bradford child.

Nowadays the club helps with school trips to make sure children have the same opportunities as more fortunate classmates whose families have more money and means. It also helps buy special equipment to improve disabled children’s lives.

Trustee Jim Saville said: “We need to get the money for all this from somewhere and we don’t get government grants or any direct support.

“What we do have is the money from individual donors who have contributed over the years.

“Sometimes that is a four-figure sum left to us in somebody’s will but more often than not it is pennies and pounds from living individuals who, like our members, think that this is a worthwhile activity.”

Young people are referred to the charity by teachers, youth workers, social workers or other people who know about the situation they are in.

To make a donation visit justgiv ing.com/CinderellaClub.

The idea of ‘Cinderella, you shall go to the ball’ is still what the charity adheres to today. When it started in 1890 it invited people to “reach and afford amusement” to the poor children of Bradford. Money was used to put on teas and panto trips.

The pioneering work of its members brought about free school meals in the city in 1905 and by the outbreak of the Great War the club was providing treats and day trips.