A GROUP of young mums will be touring schools and youth clubs across Southamp-ton to tackle the number of teenage pregnancies in the city.

Members of the Sue Willis Workshop will use a video they produced last year highlighting their experiences as part of the visits.

They hope the scheme will help reduce Southampton's position of having one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the country.

The efforts of the Thornhill-based group have been boosted by a £4,300 grant from national organisation the Teenage Pregnancy Unit.

Mother-of-two Becky Davis, 23, of the Sue Willis Workshop, said: "We are very excited because we have got a little bit of a different approach and we hope to get young people talking about relationships, sex and contraception.

"We want to give them a genuine insight into teenage motherhood.

"We hope to try to encourage young people to look at the rewards of having a career and going to college and doing something exciting with their lives, rather than becoming pregnant.

"Southampton has a very high rate of teenage pregnancies but hopefully with us going to schools and youth clubs with our own experiences and being at their level, we may be able to get young people to think a little."

The group plan to tour youth clubs and secondary schools in Southampton next year with the video and a workshop. The 15-minute tape, called It's Your Choice, features young mums talking about the problems they have faced.