A COMPANY director splashed out on a luxury bathroom makeover to help raise funds for Bolton Lads and Girls Club.

Pete Slater is looking forward to his new Twyford bathroom suite which he bagged for half-price at a fundraising Auction of Promises.

Mr Slater, aged 31, said: "We are having the house decorated and the bathroom was the next job, so it was perfect."

Normally the bathroom suite would cost £5,000 but Pete, a director of the Bolton based Silk Group, got it under the hammer for £2,200, although he did admit he had his eye on a classic car as well.

"But by then I was all spent out," said Pete, who lives with his partner Diane Woodhouse in Horwich.

The fundraising event was held to support the activities of the Bolton Lads and Girls Club.

Amazed workers at the Spa Road club were delighted with the huge success of the evening at the Last Drop Village last weekend. It raised a huge £123,000 for the club the largest sum of money they have ever raised from a single event.

More than 300 generous people dug deep into their pockets to bid for unusual and luxurious items, ranging from a horse drawn carriage ride round Lake Windermere to a weeks holiday on bakery boss Ross Warburtons 62ft motor cruiser in Majorca.

It was also Mr Warburton who donated the most coveted auction item of the evening, his own 1967 Alfa Romeo convertible sports car. Bidding was fast and furious and the gavel finally went down on it at £13,500.

Other auction items included a round of golf at Loch Lomond, a French ski chalet for a week, scuba diving, use of a villa in Barbados, and a signed Pele football shirt.

Lads and Girls Club fundraising events officer Claire Phillips said they were hoping to match the £72,000 raised from last years auction so she was "thrilled" with the amount of money raised, which will go towards funding the clubs new junior mentoring project for children aged eight to 12.

"We have traditionally worked with older young people, whose problems and behaviour were already well established," said club chief executive Jeremy Glover. The idea behind the new scheme is to catch the problems early before they can develop.

"These are very ordinary kids who just need a bit of support at the right time."

It is mainly social services who refer children for a place on the scheme and it has proved so successful that there is already a waiting list.