A charity tackling solvent abuse among young people - set up in memory of a Bradford teenager who died ten years ago - faces closure if vital funds are cut.

Sixteen-year-old Chantelle Bleau, of Horton Bank Top, died on December 1, 1997, after sniffing cigarette lighter fuel.

Her parents, Pat and Richard, set up the Chantelle Bleau Memorial Fund to raise awareness of solvent abuse and try to reduce the deaths it causes.

Since the fund was launched there has not been a single under-18 death from solvent abuse in the Bradford district, compared with the national death rate of one per day and the Yorkshire rate of between six and ten a year.

The city centre-based organisation, which focuses on visiting schools, has addressed 42,000 pupils districtwide, introduced solvent abuse education into the curriculum, campaigned to raise the age limit for buying lighter fuel from 16 to 18 and trained teachers and school nurses to tackle solvent abuse.

But now its trustees fear funding by Bradford Council will be cut, despite the charity being described as a life-saver by a senior councillor. Trustees chairman Wendy Adeniji, who was Chantelle's teacher at Dixons Community Technology College, said: "For the past three years Bradford Council has funded us through the Young People's Substance Misuse pot, but big cuts to the budget from April 2008 mean that cash for preventative education is being drastically reduced.

"It's difficult to secure alternative funding - we've spent the last year trying to do so - because we're not a new organisation. Initially we were funded by a grant trust but we're currently funded by a statutory body, making it difficult to return to grant funding."

Chantelle's mother Pat Bleau said: "I am so pleased about what has been achieved and that something good has come from Chantelle's death. We cannot allow all this good work to stop.

"Cigarette lighter fuel is the big killer - it can stop your heart beating instantly - yet before we brought the issue to the Government's attention, any teenager could go into a shop and buy it. If Chantelle had had an education programme like this she may have known enough not to try it."

Councillor Martin Smith, executive member for safer communities, said: "The statistics show that this organisation is a life-saver.

"It serves a vital role in the community, preventative work is so important and should be embedded in schools so children grow up with the facts. And as a largely voluntary organisation it is very economical.

"We can't get out of the Government how much next March's Neighbourhood Renewal Fund replacement will be. It won't be announced until December and that doesn't leave long until March. It is not appropriate to leave it so late. This affects the whole voluntary sector. We can't accommodate them in the overall structure until we know where we are."

Shirley Banks, assistant head teacher at Thornton Grammar School, said: "We have been privileged to have the Chantelle Bleau Memorial Fund to work in school over the past five years.

"Their input is invaluable to the curriculum, providing a true link to the dangers of solvent abuse. It would be a tremendous loss if they were unable to continue their fabulous service."

Linda Peacock, Bradford Council's Young People's Substance Misuse Commissioner, said: "We are unable to make any definite decisions until we know how much funding is coming into the district. However, prevention and education provision is an integral part of the young people's substance misuse programme."

But Miss Adeniji predicted that if cuts were made, preventative measures would be given less priority than treatment.