MEMBERS of a family from Malton are celebrating having their gas bill written off - thanks to a radio DJ.

Paul Swain, 41, who is a full-time carer for his wife, won £211.63 on Virgin Radio's Pay Your Bills competition earlier this month.

The giveaway was set up by the radio station to help its listeners "start 2007 debt-free". DJ Christian O'Connell said: "January is never very rock 'n' roll - everyone's either on diets and not drinking, or too broke to go out, and that's no fun for anyone."

Mr Swain said the news that he could say goodbye to his bill "brought a smile to his face". He said: "We were lucky really. We had to register online for the competition and we knew that if we had won, they were going to read it out on air.

"The catch was that if your name was read out, you had to call them back within half-an-hour or you lost out.

"I just entered it and put it to the back of my mind. You don't expect to win these sorts of things. Other people asked for quite a lot more money when they registered than we did, but we didn't want to be greedy."

Mr Swain was one of 47,000 people who have registered so far and the money he won was part of the £20,000 that has already been given away.

The competition finishes on February 9.