Eight Bells for Mental Health win Team of the Year at the Newbury Weekly News Best in Business Awards 2024

Charity Eight Bells for Mental Health won Team of the Year at the Newbury Weekly News Best in Business Awards 2024.

Staff and members were in attendance at the awards and expressed delight with their win.

“We were absolutely delighted,” said charity manager Andrea Barrett.

“We weren’t expecting to win and we were delighted to be nominated.

“To see their [members’] faces when our name was called out was amazing, it was great."

Eight Bells, on Highfield Avenue, runs a mental health drop-in centre that offers a safe space for those struggling with their mental health.

The centre is open three days a week and members can drop in at any time.

It also conducts a lot of wider work with other organisations and has sat down with the Newbury MP to discuss loneliness in the district.

Eight Bells for Mental Health Newbury, Age Concern, Volunteer Centre West Berkshire and West Berkshire Council sat down with Laura Farris in 2022 to identify and tackle the issue.

Ms Barrett said that mixing with charities is important to Eight Bells.

But the awards introduced her to other businesses.

She said: “For us it was great to get into the business community.

“We are well connected with charities but it was great to hear about some other businesses.

"And for them to hear about us as well.”