Belfast mental health charity receives surprise Christmas grant

There were tears of happiness when our Belfast Shore Road store's community champion Karen Hynes presented local mental healthy charity MindWise with a surprise grant from the Asda Foundation.

The £2,000 cheque, which will help them to make various improvements like refurbishing the kitchen, was hidden in a large Christmas cracker before it was opened by the charity's operations manager Karen Crothers.

Karen said: "The donation came as a complete surprise. I was lost for words, which rarely happens – it is just phenomenal!

"Fundraising for mental health can be challenging at times and the donation really does mean the world to us.

"The money will enable us to upweight the level of services we can offer to people in the local community. This will include refurbishing the kitchen into what will be affectionately known as our Happiness Cafe.

"Helping people socialise is such an important part of the work we do and having a space for this in the centre will be invaluable. The donation will also allow us to provide health promotion advice, with the potential to invite external trainers to the centre."

Our community champion Karen said: "I was bowled over by the work they do in the community – the whole team is such an inspiration. I was delighted to present the cheque as I know it will make such a difference."