FOR the first time since the start of the recession, the young people of St George's, Hanworth Park, in west London, were able to go on a holiday to Adventure International, in Bude, Cornwall, thanks to a Lottery grant.

Although Hanworth Park sounds like a pleasant London suburb close to Heathrow, the Revd Paul Williamson (above) tells me that there is a lot of deprivation in the ethnically mixed area, and not many of the 25 members (with a few friends) of the St George's Youth Club who went could have afforded the full £400 for the week's holiday - let alone for the second week they were soon clamouring for. By all accounts, they had a whale of a time.

They travelled in two packed minibuses, followed by a van with their luggage accompanied by seven adult leaders. Each day started with an early-morning run or swim before breakfast, and later there were "some amazing activities". Climbing, canoeing, surfing, mountain biking, abseiling, dragon-boat racing, and kayaking were all on offer - most of them offering a chance to get very wet indeed.

Each evening, the games room, disco hall, and football pitch were fully used, and there was a TV room for the exhausted. There were competitions, karaoke, and fancy dress. The equipment was excellent, Fr Williamson says, and there were some very pleasant instructors; and the St George's group were declared the best-behaved and most trouble-free group ever.

Among the young people were a 16-year-old youth-leader, his cousin, and an air cadet - all Muslims, and all of a similar age. The joined in everything, even the mass, for which Fr Williamson tells me had brought a full set of high-church accoutrements. The young Muslims were "astounded", he said: one of them commented that they "didn't know that Christians took their religion so seriously".