Beth Doherty
After raising over £14,000 at a Mental Health Awareness Gala earlier this month, Lucie Jones has presented the local branch of the Samaritans with a cheque for £7,000 today (23rd November 2021).
When three families close to Lucie Jones lost their sons to suicide, she decided to take action to tackle the taboo subject of mental health and suicide.
“I love to organise events so I decided to hold a charity gala.
“Mental health is hugely important to me because I not only have friends who have suffered family losses due to mental health issues, but I also have friends who are suffering now and need to be heard,” explained Lucie.
Presenting the cheque to the Salisbury Samaritans today, Robert Streatfeild, a volunteer and trustee for the charity said, “Thank you to Lucie for the enormous amount of work that she did for this event.
“We are incredibly grateful to be one of the beneficiaries of this fantastic gala dinner. I hadn’t met Lucie until about three weeks ago, and to receive £7,000 completely out of the blue is just remarkable, so thank you, Lucie.
“The money is important for the Samaritans because we are a voluntary organisation and as you would imagine it costs us a certain amount of money to run this branch and we have to raise that money.
“Additionally, we are moving premises, and that money will go some way to assisting with the costs of the move. Whichever way it goes, it will be used in a very appropriate way and that is to allow our volunteers to receive phone calls and emails from people in distress and to help those people”.
The ball was such a success that Lucie has decided to do it all again at a bigger venue next year in the hope of raising even more funds for local mental health charities.
“For next year, I am looking for nominations for mental health charities in Wiltshire. So please feel free to get in touch if you would like to nominate a mental health charity,” added Lucie.
The ball will take place on November 19th 2022 at The Gray Manor Hotel in Cholderton. Tickets will go on sale in January.
Whatever you’re going through, a Samaritan will face it with you. We’re here 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Call 116 123 for free.
Andy Munns
