The MPS Society is celebrating today after being awarded £10,000 in funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.
The charity will use its funding to give counselling to young people diagnosed with MPS, Fabry or a related lysosomal disease to help their community thrive.
This new National Lottery funding will fund a pilot counselling service with a qualified psychotherapist from Rareminds, an organisation that provides professional counselling and wellbeing resources to rare disease patient groups and organisations, for young people aged 16 to 18 with MPS, Fabry or a related lysosomal disease.
Studies show that people who have MPS and related lysosomal diseases are more likely to experience low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression – especially in their teenage years.
The project will help young people to unlock change by using proven methods of counselling to better understand and accept their disease, learn coping strategies and improve their mental wellbeing.
National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. The National Lottery Community Fund distributes a share of this to projects to support people and communities to prosper and thrive.
Anna Featherstone, Head of Fundraising and Communications at the MPS Society, said: “Thanks to National Lottery players, this grant means that we can launch our pilot counselling service which has been a work in progress for a while. This funding is extremely important to improving the mental health and wellbeing of our younger members. This will make a big difference to people’s lives.”
During the pandemic, in 2020 alone, The National Lottery Community Fund distributed almost £1 billion to charities and community organisations across the UK.
More information:
To find out more about The National Lottery Community Fund, please click here.
