Depden Care Farm celebrates People's Millions win

A Depden farm-based project has won thousands of votes to secure nearly £50,000 in National Lottery funding.

Minds to Mend, which operates from Depden Care Farm, supports adults with learning difficulties, acquired brain injuries and mental health problems to gain new skills and work experience in agriculture and horticulture.

It won the most votes in the People's Projects, a National Lottery-funded initiative, and will now receive £49,790 to fund a new weekly programme for people recovering from mental health problems and to create a new, accessible, workshop.

Tim Freathy, charity director, said: "They spend time on the farm, tending to the animals and growing crops which we sell, and they rake part in team projects like fence building and creating animal enclosures.

"National Lottery funding will pay for staff to allow us to open another day a week and help to build a new fully accessible workshop to broaden the range of skills Depden Care Farm offers everyone.

"Winning this amount of money will make a massive difference to our little charity and to the many people we would be able to help as a result."

The People's Projects is a partnership between the National Lottery, Big Lottery Fund (which distributes money raised by National Lottery players) and ITV to give the public a chance to have a say in where up to £3 million of National Lottery funding should go.

This year, up to £3 million has been awarded to 57 good causes across the UK, following a two-week public vote to decide the winners out of a short-list of 95 projects.

Minds to Mend won 4,845 votes, ranking it first in the Anglia east region.