A DONATION from Prince Charles has helped the Youth Wing Appeal for Hitchin’s Queen Mother Theatre reach its �250,000 target.

Members of the Bancroft Players Drama Group were given the news of the royal handout by Sir Simon Bowes Lyon, the Queen Mother’s nephew.

As president of the Youth Wing Appeal, he made the original grant application to The Prince’s Charities Foundation.

The donation came “with the Prince of Wales’s best possible wishes”.

The Players’ chairman Richard Whitmore said: “We are extremely grateful to the Prince for his donation, which came during the very week that we reached our �250,000 target. So his timing was perfect!

“I am told Prince Charles knows of every grant request that his charity receives so it is particularly gratifying that the grandson of the much-loved Queen Mother, who gave her name to our theatre, should contribute to this important new stage in its life.

“As with all the Prince’s donations, the amount given is never made public but his grant has set the perfect seal on a highly successful appeal that we can now claim has attracted support from the widest possible spectrum of those concerned with helping young people.”

Although the Players have raised sufficient to complete building work, they still have to find money to furnish the new Studio Theatre. They are now inviting supporters and companies to sponsor a seat bearing their name for �100.

Forms can be obtained from the QMT at Woodside, Walsworth Road, Hitchin and Paula Downes via her e-mail address: paula.downes@ntlworld.com or by calling Maureen Nobes on 01462 435988.