A CENTRE which helps people recovering from mental health illnesses has been chosen as a supermarket’s charity of the year.

The St Margaret’s Centre, in Durham City will receive 12 months of fund raising and awareness support from its local branch of Sainsbury’s.

The centre, founded in 1991, offers training and work therapy in woodwork, craft, kitchen and cooking skills, garden experience and computing and office skills.

Customers voted for the Margery Lane centre to be adopted as the charity partner for the coming year in a two-week ballot held at the beginning of May.

Rob Chatwin from St Margaret’s Centre added: "We know the success that the Local Charity partnership has bought to many charities in Durham so when we received the recent phone-call to tell us the news, we were thrilled.

"The exposure and support is going to be massively beneficial to our charity and I’d like to thank every Sainsbury’s Durham customer who voted".