Reward Funding: 25 Lancashire Minds

From Workshops to Walking Challenges:
A Journey of Support for Lancashire Mind

Step back in time five years, and Mike Calvert had recently attended a workshop run by Lancashire Mind providing guidance to parents and carers with young people about how to sit exams. The workshop was free to access and offered ways to support children experiencing stress and anxiety around exam pressures. The country then went into lockdown.

Mike said: “That workshop really opened my eyes to what Lancashire Mind do in the community for young children as well as adults. Mental health issues are something some people still do not talk about, as they see it as a weakness. Following that workshop I knew I wanted to help raise the profile of the charity and the invaluable work they do.”

In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25%. Lancashire Mind found their services in more demand than ever before yet many of their services were under threat due to a huge 30% decrease in fundraising income and donations.

During that time, the future of mental health support was uncertain. Mike said: “Each year the company I work for, Reward Funding (formerly Reward Finance Group), support a charity. After my experience at the workshop I has no hesitation in putting forward Lancashire Mind.”

Throughout 2020 and 2021, Reward Finance, who are based in Manchester, but have many staff and customers who live in Lancashire, were both creative and generous in their efforts to support Lancashire Mind.

Mike said: “We couldn’t organise the usual events and activities but we were determined to raise funds. The team did things like donated the money they were saving by not having to commute, together with the cost of the usual takeaway coffees, lunchtime sandwiches, and parking charges.”

“We also decided to take part in a challenge organised by Lancashire Mind called Breaking Boundaries. When the Leeds office found out what the Manchester office was doing we decided to challenge each other- a battle of the Roses. Both offices walked the distance of the boundary of their respective counties, which is 417 miles for Lancashire and 450 miles around Yorkshire, over a two-week period. However, instead of walking the counties, the two Reward teams and their supporters smashed the Boundaries Challenge by walking 4,500 miles, which is nearly twice around the whole of the UK.”