Amy Winehouse grant for Focus 12 rehabilitation charity

The foundation set up in the name of the late singer Amy Winehouse is to help fund a Bury St Edmunds-based drugs rehabilitation charity.

The Amy Winehouse Foundation will give £30,000 to Focus 12, which provides abstinence-based treatment for drink and drug addicts.

Focus 12 said the money would help treat up to seven clients.

Mitch Winehouse, Amy's father, said: "In all of my travels Focus 12 was one of the most outstanding facilities."

Amy Winehouse died aged 27 in July 2011 and her father established the foundation in September that year.

Mr Winehouse said: "Our mission statement is to help younger people and what we are talking about with Focus 12 is getting more people into recovery quicker.

"If we can spent a few thousand pounds on people's initial rehab and move them towards work, then they are not going to be a blight on society."

Focus 12, which has received donations from celebrities including Russell Brand, Boy George and Davina McCall in the past, has annual running costs of about £500,000.

Its three-month treatment programme costs about £5,000 per person.

Chief executive Chip Somers said about 85% of clients, of all ages, completed this initial programme.

"The money will make a big difference, because there are a lot of young people who go to local drug services and they are often dismissed because they are young and people don't think they've suffered enough," he said.

"But a lot of people under 30 years old are presenting to us for treatment, which would have been unheard of 10 years ago.

"There is a drop-off and not everybody stays clean for the rest of their lives but 40% can keep clean for over a year and young people do tend to indicate that they stay better for much longer."