Newbury-based mental health charity The Charlie Waller Trust raises over £85k during week-long Christmas appeal

A Newbury-based mental health charity raised a whopping £86,594 during its week-long Christmas appeal.

The Charlie Waller Trust — which specialises in helping young people’s mental health — held its festive charity appeal from December 3 to December 10 with the aim of raising £60k, a target that was smashed by over £25k.

During those seven days, all donations were doubled by the match-funding platform The Big Give.

The £86,594 raised will help fund a new project in 2025 called Empowering Parents and Carers, which will help the charity to co-produce a library of resources with those who have first-hand experience of caring for a child with ill mental health.

The trust’s head of fundraising Nick Appleby said he was “shocked in the best way” by the final amount.

He said: “We are absolutely thrilled and beyond grateful for the generosity of everyone who has supported us.

“Our original target was £60,000, so the final figure is a real testament to the success of the appeal and the difference the project can make to so many families.”

The Charlie Waller Trust was created by the Waller family in 1997 in response to the loss of their 28-year-old son and brother Charlie—described as “a strong, funny, popular, good-looking and kind young man” and “the life and soul of every party”—to suicide.

It has since become one of the UK’s most respected mental health charities and its mission is to educate young people and those with responsibility for them—parents and carers, teachers, college and university staff and employers—about their mental health and wellbeing.

The trust’s chief executive Hannah Vickery added: “This is the third year in a row that we’ve surpassed our fundraising goal during our Christmas appeal.

“We know that there’s the highest ever demand for children and young people needing help with their mental health and so it’s deeply encouraging to see so much support for the cause.”