A CHARITY basketball tournament drawing 200 young players from across Oxfordshire has raised £1,800 for children in England and abroad.

Oxford charity Young Steps organised the annual event at Blackbird Leys Leisure Centre last Saturday.

Seventeen teams, including one made up of Thames Valley Police officers, competed in the seven-minute long games during the day-long tournament. Organiser Lawrance Shama said: “We raised £1,800. Half of this funds youth work at Young Steps, and half goes to the orphanage we sponsor in India.

“But it’s not only about raising money, its about encouraging young people.”

Oxford Young Steps meets at 7.30pm each Friday at the leisure centre. For more information, email info@oxford youngsteps.org.

Meanwhile, a teenager has walked the streets of Bicester to raise money in memory of her “second mum”.

Keri Allen, 16, roped in fellow Cooper School pupils to walk five miles around the town on Sunday and raise cash for Sobell House hospice, at the Churchill Hospital, Headington, which cared for her aunt Julie Turner, 51.

Mrs Turner, of Basset Avenue, who worked in the patient transfer department at the John Radcliffe hospital, Oxford, died from lung cancer in August.

Miss Allen, of Juniper Gardens, Bicester, said: “I thought it would be nice to do this in her memory because they were lovely to her at the hospice.

So far, Miss Allen has raised more than £200, but hopes more will come in.