THOUSANDS of pounds awarded to a mental health charity for its “impressive”

work will help it continue to support hundreds of people across Oxfordshire.

East Oxford’s Restore is one of nine nationwide winners of a GSK Impact Award, which recognises outstanding community-based health and wellbeing charities.

The charity, based in Manzil Way, East Oxford, also received a £30,000 boost for the honour, beating competition from more than 350 organisations to win the national award.

Restore chief executive Martin Realey said: “The £30,000 is a very welcome start to the fundraising year at a time when we have to self-generate a greater amount than ever. We hope this award, coupled with the recognition for our recovery and coaching provision, is a strong blow in the fight to challenge stigma.”

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Restore community fundraiser Hannah Feldman said the charity needed £1.4 million to run its coaching and recovery services each year, with 30 per cent of the cash coming from fundraising, such as running its shops and cafes and selling products crafted by its members.

She said the £30,000 prize would now support Restore’s day-to-day running costs, which included training volunteers, hiring specialist coaches and recovery workers, as well as buying resources such as seeds, tools, craft materials and wood.

Miss Feldman said: “We are ecstatic.

Especially with the cuts, it’s always quite worrying, so to have that kind of certainty that we have money and we are able to continue our services is really fantastic.”

The charity was founded in 1977 by Lord Young of Dartington and psychiatrist Dr Peter Agulnik, to provide work and volunteering opportunities to residents with mental health issues.

Last year, more than 700 people across the county were supported by the charity’s 120-strong team of volunteers and about 40 staff members. It provides one-toone coaching and runs recovery groups in Didcot, Banbury, East Oxford, Littlemore and Cowley, where residents can take part in activities including gardening and woodwork.

Volunteer Ian Cammidge has been volunteering with Restore’s Banbury recovery group for almost two years after the charity helped him battle alcoholism.

The 43-year-old from Banbury said: “They helped me get back to being myself. I had been a drunk for so many years, I did not know how to cope with normal life and they helped me through it. Restore is vital.

“At the end of the day, members see this as their safe zone, it’s a safe place for them to come.”

Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) joined with health care charity The King’s Fund for the awards, which will be presented at a prize-giving ceremony at London’s Science Museum on May 14.

Director of GSK’s UK and Ireland charitable partnerships Katie Pinnock said: “The relationship between mental health problems and unemployment is particularly worrying and Restore is having great success in breaking this cycle by helping its clients to get or keep a job.”

In 2010, the Oxford Mail’s parent company Gannett, gave Restore a £15,000 grant to buy a minibus.