THREE local charities have been given the chance to win a share of an amazing £128,000 cash giveaway by our newspaper group.

The parent company of Newsquest - publisher of your Chard and Ilminster News and its sister titles in the south west - has a charitable arm, The Gannett Foundation.

The foundation is providing the money to support charities across the country, and we are delighted to have a £16k share to give away in our area.

We asked YOU to decide where this money should be spent.

You nominated in your thousands and our editorial team chose a shortlist of ten charities from these nominations that will share the £16k.

Shortlisted charities in Wales & West region

Age UK Somerset (Taunton)

Belle's Story (Haverfordwest)

Escape Support Group (Creech St Michael, Taunton)

Ferne Animal Sanctuary (Wambrook, Chard)

Herefordshire Vennture (Hereford)

Marches Family Network (Hereford)

Raven House Trust Limited (Newport)

RCV UK (Risca)

Snap Specialist Playgroup (Withybush Hospital, Pembrokeshire)

Vale Baby Basics (Barry)

Now, we are putting the power to allocate the cash back into the hands of our readers.

You are invited to collect tokens from our newspapers that can then be posted to our office in Taunton (Bridgwater Mercury, Tangier 2, Tangier Central, Taunton, Somerset, TA1 4AS).

Tokens will then be used to allocate cash to each shortlisted charity.

If your chosen charity collects 50 per cent of all tokens collected, it will receive 50 per cent of the £16,000!

Terms and conditions

Newsquest terms and conditions will apply where relevant to the grants process; please visit http://www.newsquest.co.uk/prize-competition-rules. Personal data will be used by Newsquest and its agents solely for the administration of the grants process and will not be shared with any third party; our general privacy notice is at: http://www.newsquest.co.uk/privacy-policy. This campaign will be published in multiple Newsquest publications across this Newsquest region. The 10 charities chosen by the local editorial panel will be voted for by our readers. The value of the grant awarded to each of the 10 charities will be calculated pro rata according to their share of the vote. Only original voting coupons will be accepted, no photocopies. The cash grants will be sent by BACS transfer. Grants are conditional on completion of the relevant project and a successful nominee charity may be required to evidence its use of the grant. The top 10 charities selected for the vote will be contacted to provide additional information for entry into the readers’ vote; should this information not be provided within the timescale provided then the editorial panel will select an alternative charity. The charity must be registered with the Charities Commission and have not received a grant from the Gannett Foundation in the last two years.