A Cumbrian cheerleading team that missed out on the opportunity to compete in the US due to a lack of funds, is raising cash to support their future achievements.

Cheer Fitness and Fun’s junior level one team, CFF Infinity, won the chance to travel to Las Vegas in May to compete in the Gold US Finals, but had to turn it down because of the short notice and lack of funds.

The team, which trains at Workington’s leisure centre, was offered the opportunity at Blackpool’s Northern Jam competition earlier this month when it beat nine other teams from across the country at the Winter Gardens.

The group of girls, aged between nine and 15, was also named level one grand champion after coming top of all 42 groups competing in level one categories, and coming just three points away from a perfect score.

Head coach Amy Pearce said: “When they called our name, the girls were absolutely ecstatic – I was just standing there thinking: ‘Oh my God’.

“It was our first competition of the season and, to me, it was more a of a practice of our routine, we weren’t expecting an awful lot from the weekend. But the girls put 100 per cent effort in everything they do.

“The children were devastated to learn we didn’t have the money to go but we’ve done it once and we can do it again. It was a wake-up call that we needed to do something.”

Amy said just the plane tickets would cost around £800 per person and team members would have had to also pay for accommodation on top of that.

The team is currently fundraising to support the expenses of performing at Disneyland Paris next March and they want to set money aside for future opportunities.

Amy added: “You get a lot of people from this area saying that there are little opportunities here, but what happened to us just goes to show that things do happen if you put the work in.

“It’s nice to see young people doing something positive and their families getting behind us.”

To donate to the team visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/cff-cheer-team.