Our team is excited to embark on a journey to raise £2,200 (£100 more than last time!) to support local enterprise, Choices 4 Growth. Choices 4 Growth is an amazing grassroots venture dedicated to providing essential support and counselling for better mental health for the whole community of Berwick and the surrounding area.

While times are hard for nearly everyone, it's common knowledge that those on lower incomes experience more problems with their mental health. We also know that therapy and counselling is hard to access and prohibitively expensive and, nestled at the top of the county, Berwick-upon-Tweed often feels overlooked when it comes to council funding. This is why the Berwick & Borders Yoga team is determined to raise as much money as possible for Choices 4 Growth, ensuring that those on lower incomes have access to vital support and a brighter future.

To make this happen, we’ve decided on a challenging yet rewarding endeavor: a yoga mala consisting of 108 Sun Salutations! For those unfamiliar, a sun salutation is a beautiful sequence of ten yoga poses flowing together. It requires bending, stretching, and plenty of movement as we repeat this sequence 108 times. Yes, you read that right—108! We want you to feel you're getting an investment of difficulty in return for your fabulous sponsorship, and sitting in a bathtub of baked beans just won't cut it! (Check out the wee video for an idea of what we'll be getting up to.)

The team will need to follow a rigorous daily training schedule over five weeks, building the strength and stamina needed for this challenge. On the day, we'd love you to come along to the Lady Waterford Hall in Ford to support us and give us a little cheer as we near the end. Refreshments will be provided.

Your generous donations through JustGiving will not only be simple and secure but will also ensure that your details remain safe—JustGiving never sells your information or sends unwanted emails.

While it's a sad and shocking sign of the times that we have to do things like this to bridge the catastrophic shortfall in funding for mental health at a time when it's never been needed more, let's pull together, let’s make a difference in our community!

Team members so far:

Kate Stephenson, Mandy Hildred, Khanittha Monthaklin, Jacquie Forrest, Trish Martin, Denise McNulty, Caroline Young, Kate O'Neill, Ute Böcker, Elspeth Gilliland, Erica Stirrett, Trood Morrison, Sarah Dunford, Gillian Brown, Isabelle Roney, Diane Wright, Kay Slater, Rebecca Rogers, Anna Turnbull, Ava Chui, Chris Morrison.

If you'd like to be a part of this, it's not too late! You can join us here.