A community outreach group has been launched in a bid to give young people in schools across south and west London the chance to start rowing.

Fulham Reach Boat Race Club will help deliver ‘Future Blues’, an initiative which targets the 52 state schools in and around Hammersmith and Fulham, Hounslow, Richmond, and Wandsworth.

Begun by BNY Mellon, Newton Investment Management, and The Boat Race Company Limited on February 26, it comes ahead of the 2018 Cancer Research UK Boat Races between Oxford and Cambridge on March 24.

Newton’s chief executive Hanneke Smits said: “We are immensely proud to launch the Future Blues community project that will increase the total number of school rowing clubs in the UK by 50 percent.

“We hope this initiative will leave a legacy of not only social upliftment but diversity and education for the future.”

The project encompasses around 50,000 school pupils which border the Championship Course of the annual Oxbridge varsity match.

There are 12 state schools in Hammersmith and Fulham who are currently involved.

A 4.2-mile stretch of the River Thames will be the venue for the 164th and 73rd men's and women's boat races this month.