Three young swimmers have been rewarded for their charitable efforts for Sports Relief by winning the monthly Maltings Community Heroes Award.

The Year Seven girls, Holly Wastell, who attends St Albans Girls Schol, and Charlotte Sevindi-Lima and Izzy Spanswick, both students at Sandringham School, received the award after raising £175 for Sports Relief in a sponsored swim at Westminster Lodge.

Charlotte said they felt “very lucky” to win the award. “We thought that we could help people less fortunate than us and it would just be nice to help them and give to charity. We feel very honoured.”

The trio swam 414 lengths of the 50 metre pool at Westminster Lodge in the space of two hours.

Holly’s mum, Marianne said that Westminster Lodge had been very accommodating when the girls asked to reserve a lane to swim for Sports Relief. She added: “Staff were more than happy to help. I was very impressed with how lovely the team were at Westminster Lodge and how encouraging they were to the girls.”

The Maltings has been running the scheme in line with the Herts Advertiser Community Awards and each month a person or group is rewarded with a cheque for £100.

The girls plan to put their prize money towards a trip to Paris and a shopping spree.