With Covid19 affecting us in so many ways that we'd never before considered, the Mayor of Chelmsford, Jude Deakin, has picked the theme of wellbeing for her charity fundraising during her Mayoral term. With this in mind, she has chosen three charities who all strive to help improve wellbeing for those they serve.

The first is Chelmsford based Helping Hands Essex . Jude was a trustee of HHE in its infancy and continues to fully support the work they do - focusing on those who are homeless or facing homelessness. They are the only charity in Essex offering free residential and non-residential rehabilitation for recovery against alcoholism and addiction.

For her second charity, she has chosen Mid and North Essex Mind as there is limited mental health support in Chelmsford, particularly for youngsters. The emotional wellbeing of our young people is just as important as their physical health, so she is delighted that Mind will soon be opening a subsidized counselling service for Chelmsford children and young people to allow the most vulnerable families the opportunity to access high-quality counselling. Good mental health helps children and young people to cope with whatever life throws at them and grow into happy, healthy adults.

Her third charity is Sanctus, a small charity based about 200 metres from the Chelmsford Civic Centre. They feed homeless and vulnerable individuals and offer them a safe and warm environment where they can feel comfortable and able to request help.

All three of these community focused charities have agreed that any donations raised on this page will be divided equally between them. Thank you.

PS - This page replaces last year's page (where we raised £655 - thank you!) as Jude's mayoral term has been extended for another year due to Covid19.