TALENTED young musicians have helped raise more than £4,500 for needy children.

The Bolton School concert band performed at the NSPCC Carols by Candlelight concert held earlier this month at Manchester Cathedral.

The recital was held in aid of the NSPCC’s £1 Million Greater Manchester ChildlLine School Service appeal.

More than 400 people listened to carols by candlelight, with the concert band performing festive favourites such as Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and O Little Town of Bethlehem.

NSPCC community fundraising manager Deborah Sefton said: “We would like to say a big thank you to the Bolton School Concert Band and to all the performers who made the evening such a success.

“Thank you to everyone else who attended the concert and got into the Christmas spirit too. It was great to hear a mixture of traditional music and carol singing and to see everyone joining in and feeling festive.

“With the support of local people we can visit every primary school in Greater Manchester and give children the confidence to talk about abuse and the courage to seek help if they ever need it. There are lots of other ways people can support us over the Christmas period and into the New Year with family, friends or colleagues. We’d love anyone who’s interested to get in touch.”

The NSPCC Greater Manchester ChildLine School Service campaign, launched earlier this year, aims to deliver school assemblies across the region to help nine to 11-year-olds understand abuse.

Volunteers aim to visit all 70,000 children across Greater Manchester’s 980 schools by 2017. So far almost 14,000 youngsters at 385 schools have taken part in the assemblies.

For more information about other local forthcoming events or if you would like to support the NSPCC locally please contact 0844 892 0253 or visit www.nspcc.org.uk