A HEALTH and fitness campaign running through Bury is hoping to attract local votes as it strives for nationwide acclaim in this year’s National Lottery Awards.

The I Will If You Will (IWIYW) project, delivered by Bury Council, with National Lottery funding from Sport England, beat off stern competition from 620 organisations to reach the public voting stage.

IWIYW — which is competing against six other projects to be crowned the winner of the sport category — aims to get more local women and girls taking exercise, more often and create a blueprint of how to tackle the gender gap between the numbers of men and women being active or playing sport.

Councillor Jane Lewis, cabinet member for communities on Bury Council, said: “Reaching the finals of The National Lottery Awards is testament to the hard work which the IWIYW team and the programme’s participants have put in since it started two years ago.

“Lottery money has been instrumental in getting IWIYW off the ground and has helped us to engage with thousands of women, girls and their families across Bury, many of whom have never felt better after trying regular exercise.

“We’re hoping that people from all over Bury and anyone from wider afield who thinks our project is worthwhile will place their vote . It would be a fantastic reward for everyone involved in IWIYW to receive national recognition for everything we’ve achieved so far.”

To vote for I Will If You Will: visit www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/project/i-will-if-you-will or call 0844 836 9692. Voting runs until midnight next Wednesday (July 29).