A 30-year-old volunteer is one of only 500 people, from 11,000 nationwide, to win sponsorship to work with her dream charity in Brick Lane.

Nicola McKenzie has given up her time to work at MyBnk, the financial education charity which teaches young people to look after their pennies, for the last six months.

Now the Vodafone Foundation has picked her as one of a select group of volunteers who will have their salary and expenses paid for the next two months to continue working at their chosen charity.

That will allow her to start a new project finding corporate partners for the charity in Canary Wharf and the City.

Ms McKenzie said: “I was really excited when I found out.

“You never expect to actually get it.

“It’s great as well because it means the charity doesn’t have to spend money on using external consultants to do this work.”

After deciding to switch from a career in finance, Ms McKenzie, who lives in Sutton, Bedfordshire, researched charities and was struck by MyBnk’s work.

She said: “I feel passionately about what they do.

“90 per cent of adults don’t receive financial education and the average person is about �10,000 in debt.”

This is the second year the Vodafone Foundation has run its World of Difference programme and last year 60 per cent of participants stayed connected to their charities.