A FOOTBALL-MAD girl is getting a chance to play the beautiful game thanks to Beaconsfield Freemasons.

Members of the 23 lodges and 10 chapters at the Beaconsfield Masonic Centre in Windsor End have helped to kick-off the sporting career of Shatakshi Raj, 12.

They donated £350 to her under-13 team at Upton Court Grammar School in Slough, to enable it to buy an individual set of shirts.

The cash was raised by a bubble football event which was held earlier this year.

Denver Lynn, the secretary of Bulwer Lodge of Cairo, which meets at the Beaconsfield Masonic Centre, organised the event.

The 40-year-old said: “I am go grateful to my fellow freemasons who have lived up to our masonic ideas of friendship, decency, and charity by contributing to this gift.

“Freemasonry is all about spurring people on to do bigger and brighter things – and getting girls to play the beautiful game is about as good as it gets.”

For more information about the Freemasons, please visit www.buckspgl.org