A PROLIFIC Newport youth group completed their latest charity stunt this week by walking across the Severn Bridge in the pouring rain.

Members of the Shaftesbury Youf Group walked to the English side of the bridge and back while battling through the wind and rain.

“I would have rathered blue skies and sun but you can’t have everything,” said chairman Richard Davies, who started the group as a police community support officer nine years ago.

He says the typically Welsh weather brought out a “bulldog spirit” in the dozen members who made the trip.

The group hold a two-hour sports club at Shaftesbury Community Centre every Monday and hold an annual fundraising event for a charity close to their hearts.

“We try and get the kids involved in their decisions, whether it’s what games they play on a Monday night, activities they do in the summer holidays or the charity events. We ask them who they want to raise money for,” Mr Davies said.

This year, the Youf Group chose St David’s Hospice Care, one of the UK’s largest providers of home care founded by a nurse tutor at the Royal Gwent Hospital in 1979.

St David's say they care for over 3,200 people every year and many in the youth group have benefited from the charity’s support.

“My own father had care provided by the hospice as well,” Mr Davies said. “We all went in with memories of people. Most who took part were doing it in memory of people who’ve passed.”

The Youf Group are hoping to mark their ninth year in existence by passing the £9,000 mark in money they have raised through their annual events.

You can donate to the group’s fundraiser here.

They are considering something "a bit more local” for the tenth to ensure that more of the group’s fifty or so members can take part.

“They really try their best and they deserve their plaudits, you know,” Mr Davies said.

Shaftesbury Youf Group is looking for more volunteers.