A charity in County Durham that supports those affected by suicide has spoken out about how a grant scheme has helped.

If U Care Share is based in Chester-le-Street and since its inception in 2011 the charity has helped those at risk of taking their own lives or families bereaved by suicide, offering practical and emotional support.

One-to-one support is available, whether that be chatting about how the person is feeling, or support while an inquest is carried out, and help with funeral organisation.

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The charity won a share of the money last year in the Readers’ Choice Cash for Charities grant scheme run by Newsquest.

The Northern Echo spoke to two fundraising and events officers from If U Care Share about how the grant scheme helped and what it enabled the charity to do.

The Northern Echo: The team from If U Care Share. Picture: IF U CARE SHAREThe team from If U Care Share. Picture: IF U CARE SHARE

Read more: Cash for Charities grant scheme now open - nominate your favourite charity now

Rebecca Rowan said: “Because most of us here have either lost someone through suicide or have been close to suicide in some way, that’s where our passion to help others comes from.”

Sam Hunter said: “The grant last year was a massive help from Newsquest. 

“We were able to provide support to forty people across the region that otherwise may not have been able to access that support, and that was supporting people at risk of suicide and those bereaved by suicide just by making sure they were able to access a support worker in a timely and appropriate way that might not have been on offer otherwise. Thankfully we can say that all those forty people are still with us today, which we’re really proud of.

“We know our service is unique, it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, it’s bespoke for everyone who comes in.

“We were able to raise awareness by how the campaign was run by the paper (The Northern Echo) so collecting the tokens in the newspapers and taking them to the collection points played a massive part in raising awareness across the region of what we do and we’ve reached more people and it’s been invaluable.”

If you would like to nominate a charity for this year’s scheme, simply log-on to www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/readerschoice or click here and fill in your nomination form or you can write to us, confirming the name and address of the charity you’d like to nominate and why to: Readers’ Choice Cash For Charity Nominations, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NF by the closing date of Sunday, September 11 2022.

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