The National Lottery is nearing its 10th birthday

The winners of each category will win a Helping Hand Award.

Arts and Lottery Minister Estelle Morris said the awards would show the British public just how far their lottery money has gone in making a real difference to people's lives.

"The Helping Hand Awards will help to demonstrate the sheer variety of projects that players have helped make possible through playing," she said.

To vote for your favourite click on the Lottery Good Causes link and simply click on your favourite cause.

BBC News Online also wants you to tell us which one you think most deserves to win, and why. Or is there a deserving good cause which has been left out?

The Children's Champion Award
This award looks at three projects which aim to enhance the lives of young people from all walks of life.

Nominees:
The Peer Mediation Project in South West Wales has worked to reduce bullying in the school playground by training schoolchildren to become mediators.

The students are taught about what creates conflict and encourage to think about the impact of their actions on others.

Since 1998 24 schools have taken up the project and several thousand students have taken part. All involved agree aggression between classmates has declined.

Sleep Scotland helps break families' cycle of interrupted nights

Another project, the New Bolton Lads' and Girl's Club, has a �5 million state-of-the-art-centre which caters for around 2,500 youngsters, including 180 with disabilities aged 4-21.

For a 40p entrance fee, it offers a wide range of sporting activities as well as affordable before and after school child care.

Meanwhile Sleep Scotland offers a completely different service, providing support families who have children with special needs and sleep problems. Since it started in 1998, the project has trained 195 sleep counsellors, established 119 Sleep clinics and has successfully given support to over 2,000 professionals and at least 1,836 parents.

The Local Legend Award
This award looks at individual members of the public and how they have helped improve lives in their communities.

Community Can Cycle is a project that recycles soft-drink bottles to generate funds to buy bicycles for children in poor families in Scotland. The project has gone from humble beginnings to a large-scale operation and has helped 20 new bikes for school kids and sent 15 bikes to Romanian orphans with terminal illnesses.

Project Intrepid uses artistic activities such as drama, painting and music to help children with a range of social and health problems, including those with chronic or life-threatening illnesses, young offenders and those with learning difficulties.

Community Can Cycle uses recycling to raise funds to provide kids with bikes

A Lottery grant in 2000 enabled a project called Inclusions to be set up. Run by David Gawn, a 27 year-old who suffers from cerebral palsy, it aims to help people with disabilities get out of day care centres and into the heart of their community. The project runs training, work placements and social activities.

The Inspiration Award
The nominees in this category all aim to change people's lives dramatically, from projects on a local scale, to those aimed at people worldwide.

Telling one of the most disturbing and horrific events of modern history, the Holocaust Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum has had well over one million visitors since it opened in 2000.

The exhibit contains personal accounts from Holocaust survivors and whilst focusing heavily on the persecution of Jews, it also tells the stories of other groups, including Gypsies, Poles and homosexuals, who also experienced the Nazis' brutality.

The Holocaust Exhibition has received �12.624 million in Lottery funding

The staff of the Community Law Centre in Carlisle have come up with a unique solution to the problem of helping those in remote areas gain access to legal aid. They have set up a mobile legal office, whereby a van takes lawyers out to isolated communities.

Between 1996 and 2002, it handled more than 19,000 queries , undertook more than 1,600 cases and won nearly �450,000 for clients.

The third nominee in this category is for Quotient Diagnostics, which is aiming to help people with diabetes. They are developing new technology that will provide diabetics with an on-the spot test, known as the A1C test, which reads glycated haemoglobin.

Currently, the only way to test for this is by taking a blood sample which is then analysed at a laboratory. The Quotient system will go on the market by the end of 2005.

The Amazing Space Award
The three chosen projects here have all demonstrated innovative use of space and aim to help their local community thrive and prosper.

The Lowry is an arts complex and spectacular architecture landmark in Salford, Greater Manchester. It is part of a regeneration project for the docks, which is designed to unlock the area and open it up to improving housing, school and creating jobs.

The Lowry houses theatres, galleries, cafes, bars and a gift shop

Since it opened in 2000 it has been hailed as one of the most successful regeneration projects in Europe, bringing social and economic benefits to the area.

An original Victorian market in Belfast has been restored with help from the National Lottery. St George's Market had become extremely dilapidated by the 1990s. The restoration has been faithful to its original design and now houses a traditional variety market with 248 stalls, attracting almost 30,000 shoppers each week.

The Millennium Coastal park in Wales is one of the largest environmental enhancement projects in the UK. It began as an attempt to regenerate 22km and 2,000 acres of contaminated and industrial wasteland and coastal plain, caused by 200 years of coal and steel production.

It now attracts more than half a million visitors a year.

The National Hero Award
This award looks at people who have achieved the remarkable, and in doing so have become an inspiration to others.

Laurie Symes, a World War II veteran, is representing 100,000 surviving veterans of the war. Laurie was 24 when he landed at Gold Beach in Normandy with the Terrorial Battalion the 7th Hampshire Regiment in 1944.

The National Lottery has this year awarded �5.3 million to over 7,400 veterans to enable them to visit the WWII battlefields.

Laurie Symes is just one of 100,000 surviving WWII veterans

In 2004 Olympic athlete Kelly Holmes became the third woman in the history of the Games to win both the 800m and the 1500m and only the second British track athlete to win two or more medals in one Olympics.

Simon Weston came extremely close to losing his life after sustaining burns to almost 50% of his body during the bombing of supply ship, the Sir Galahad, during the Falklands War.

His personal experience of recovery led him to found a youth charity, called Weston Spirit, which aims to help young people in some of the UK's most deprived areas.

The UK Life Award
These projects use their local natural environment and buildings to change and enhance lifestyles, and work as an attraction for outsiders.

The National Cycle Network in Bristol has helped promote healthier lifestyles while also reducing car congestion and pollution levels. The massive series of signed cycling and walking paths link communities to schools, stations and city centres, as well as beautiful countryside.

In 2003, 126 million trips were made on the network. The project is still ongoing, and a further 10,000 miles of route will be opened by the end of 2005.

Since opening in 2000, the Tate Modern in London has housed many successful exhibitions and has attracted millions of visitors.

The Tate Modern was created in the Bankside Power Station

On a local scale, the Tate Modern has sought to reach members of the community by organising informal sessions with local groups of mothers, toddlers and the elderly, and encouraging them to see the gallery's collection.

The Eden Project in Cornwall, described as a 'national treasure', showcases flora and fauna from around the world in futuristic 'biomes'. Since it opened in March 2001 it has employed over 600 local people and visited by more than one million, helping to inject half a billion pounds in the regional economy.

Which lottery-funded cause is your favourite? Which other charities should the lottery raise money for? What are your memories of the National Lottery? Send us your comments using the form below.

Your comments:

Laurie Symes without a doubt. This country is slowly forgetting what our men and ancestors gave to ensure our freedom of speech, our liberties and allow us to live in a democratic society.
Debra Steadman, Alston, Cumbria

Why is the Government raiding the Lottery fund? Would someone please tell me why the Cutty Sark, a piece of our history, was denied funding?
IC, London, UK

Perhaps its a good idea for all these massive projects but I feel that the money should be spread more evenly across the UK on smaller projects. One idea here in Grimsby is the Safe & Clean team project, which monitors fly tipping, drug waste removal and many other community services within the Grimsby area. These guys are the ones that should get funding, not large corporate sized projects where 50% of the funds are wasted
Pete, Grimsby, Lincs

Let's not forget projects which have been scandalously abandoned by lottery funding. Ten years ago it was said that Brighton's West Pier was a prime example of a project which was ideal for lottery funding, but it's now a charred wreck.
Nic, Brighton

The whole issue of 'good causes' is just a dignified way of saying 'stealth tax'.
Simon Jones, Elgin, Moray

We must remember that the charity aspect is second to people's dreams of winning. If the charity aspect was really that important they'd be giving the whole pound, not the fraction that's left after the organisers and prize money have taken their cut.
David, UK

My vote is for the UK Life Award. Our environment affects everything and everyone and must be our Number One priority if we are to improve the quality of life now and leave a country worth living in for our children and grandchildren.
Toby, Cardiff, UK

Memories of the lottery? Instead of focusing on a few debatable "good causes", let's remember the hundreds of millions of pounds of fat profit taken by Camelot (whilst Richard Branson offered to do it at cost price) or the tens of billions of pounds siphoned off by the treasury. Let's remember grand projects like the 750 million pound millennium dome, the 300 million pounds given to Royal Opera or the 30 million pounds given to "buy" the already state-owned Churchill papers.
Neil Pearce, London, England

With animal cruelty and abuse on the rise in Britain I think some of the National Lottery money should be given to help the RSPCA's continue to fight to find and prosecute offenders. Also the facilities they use to help animals could do with some cash aid. The people in this wonderful organisation do great work but they seem to get very little credit for it. They go into situations of horror that most of us would like to believe didn't exist.
D, Williams, Montreal, Canada

Lottery tickets should have a tick box for who you want the money to go to.
Chris, UK

With a massive rise in rape, why are Rape Crisis not on this list? Statistically you are more likely to be a victim of violent crime if you are a young male. In reality however, you are more likely to be a victim of violent crime of you are female. Violence against women is increasing, both on the streets and in the home, it's about time more money was put into trying to put an end to violence against women and girls.
Jennifer Hynes, Plymouth, UK

This is a great idea and should be extended. At just 1p to call it's not even a rip off premium rate call. However, they seem to have forgotten the Internet and those of us that may not have easy access to a UK phone. I would encourage the Lottery to set up an Internet Voting system - there are plenty of secure systems available these days.
Andrew Mair, Lee on Solent, UK

More facilities should be provided to disability groups. In the local area where I live there are only two day care centres but they can only offer a certain amount of days in the week to individuals. The rest of the time these disabled people are at home. They definitely need more day care centres around and more facilities to take part in.
Mags, Berks

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