A MENTAL health charity is in dire financial straits after losing £14,500 as a result of the pandemic.

Twigs Community Gardens has been running for over 20 years helping people with mental health issues.

But it relies on donations and funding from its events which have all been cancelled over the last three months because of the coronavirus crisis.

The fundraising manager, Victoria Phipps, organises all the events to raise money for Twigs.

She said: “A number of staff have been put on furlough and freelance staff have had to make the decision whether to move on or wait for us to open. There’s been skeleton staff at the gardens just to maintain them, but our service for people has stopped because of Covid-19.

“A lot of our income is through events we put on which we haven’t been doing so we’ve had no income and lost £14,500.”

The next event won’t be until August 27, which will be the Twigs Charity Golf Day.

And an influx of people in need is expected because the pandemic and lockdown have been challenging for people’s mental health.

Victoria said: “The financial loss has been significant and everyone has been very worried including the service users because in most cases we are their lifeline.

“We’ve tried to support people through Facebook the best we can but we’re expecting a bit of a crisis as lockdown ends.

“More people have suffered with mental health issues because of the pressures and changes since lockdown. Some people who might normally be okay and never suffer from depression or anxiety are now going through it.

“We can’t really do anything for these people until we are fully open and even then we expect the demand will increase.”

Sean Gregory has used the charity for his mental health and thinks it’s vital to keep open.

He said: It helped get my confidence back, given structure to my week. It gives me the chance to meet with like minded people and it get me out of the house which prevents me from having too much time on my own. I’ve also gained knowledge of growing plants and learnt many new things from lots of people.”

Twigs can be helped by volunteering, taking on challenges to raise money or donating to friendsoftwigs.org.uk/how-to-help/