CAST members from Channel Four soap Hollyoalks will take part in a football match in aid of Ugandan youngsters this weekend. 

Proceeds from Sunday's game at West Kirby Football Club will go to Northwest -based charity HUGS (Helping Uganda Schools).

The Hollyoaks team will play a squad from West Kirby's HQ Coaching at the venue in Greenbank Road. The game starts at 3pm. Enry is £2 and 50p for under 11s.

It is one of three games organised by HUGS that is taking place in Northern Ireland, Wales and England over the weekend.

HUGS Trustee Matthew Houghton said: "There will be a trophy for each game we play in, but all games are taken lightly and the teams we are playing against are mostly veterans. It's all about the taking part, having fun and raising money." 

HUGS began in 1995 when a group of friends decided to see if they could raise enough funding to put 15 Ugandan orphans through school.

By 1997 that group of friends had multiplied in number and the idea grew, with the aim being to help build a school in a rural area, about four hours from the Ugandan capital of Kampala.

Four years later that school – St Zoe’s Day and Boarding Primary – opened and today helps educate more than 450 children, delivering some of the best exam results in the region.

Sport plays a huge role in HUGS’ work, with the charity regularly collecting football shirts to take over to the schools in Uganda.

HUGS founder Peter Mount said: "It is very rewarding to see the children doing well at school and to see so many whom we supported over the last 20 years now in university or further education or have good jobs.

"The Ugandan youngsters are fanatical about sport, as fanatical as UK youngsters, perhaps even more so. Football is the big thing.

"Growing children really need the value that sport can give. It creates healthy competition and is a great safety valve too."

Trustee Matthew Houghton added: "The pupils at St Zoe's have been presented with football shirts from football teams in England by the primary schools in Merseyside and Cheshire.

"This part of the project gives the pupils encouragement and aspiration that one day they could play football in England.

"For many children in Uganda taking part in sport is difficult because they do not have the correct equipment or they cannot be spared from the family chores.

"Also, the schools do not have the land for sport such as football and this means the children play sport in their neighbourhoods with minimal resources."