Cash from the Press and Journal's Year of Giving Trust helped charities and good causes across the north and north-east of Scotland make a great start to 2008.

Five major charities and more than 120 community groups, schools, individuals and other worthwhile causes in the Aberdeen area have been given a share of more than £400,000 raised over the course of the year. The campaign has raised £430,000 since its launch in January last year.

Half the cash has been divided between five designated charities – Ucan, the Anthony Nolan Trust, Leukaemia Research, Maggie's Highlands Cancer Care Centre and Emmerdale Charities, a fund that will donate money to charities chosen by the cast and staff from the ITV1 programme. Each of the charities has received £43,000.

The remainder – another £215,000 – has been allocated to support 123 good causes across the area.

The hundreds of applications received were scrutinised by trustees of the Year of Giving Trust – Derek Tucker, editor of the Press and Journal, Alan Scott, managing director of Aberdeen Journals, Les Dalgarno, business and commercial property consultant to Aberdeen solicitors Paull and Williamsons, and Ken Matheson, a former banker who is now a director of Aberdeen Football Club and non-executive director of a number of companies across the north and north-east of Scotland.

The latest donations continue the Press and Journal's proud tradition of raising money for charities in its huge circulation area.

In previous years, readers have raised millions of pounds, including £5m for the Archie Foundation to help build a new children's hospital in Aberdeen, £500,000 for Saving Sight in Grampian, which researches the cause of blindness, and £500,000 for the urological cancer charity Ucan.

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