After being rejected from a temporary job at McDonalds, Cameron Hickman, a 16 year old from Boxford, near Newbury had a choice to make. 

He could either sit at his Playstation3 through the Summer holidays in 2011 and get bored, or he could look for local work to help fund his school skiing trip in February 2012. 

Cameron, a sixth form pupil at Mary Hare School for the Deaf in Newbury, chose the latter but with a difference. He offered to take on any kind of work; office work, farm work, dog walking, house sitting or gardening.  And here’s the ingenious twist: customers paid what they thought the job was worth and 25% of the fee went to Cancer Research in memory of his late Grandad, Jim Black. 

Cameron personally leaflet dropped the whole village.

The people of Boxford responded enthusiastically and Cameron spent the summer weeding, painting fences and sheds, feeding tomatoes, cats and other pets, cutting grass and helping out with larger garden projects.

In so doing, he raised £100 for charity.