The Saltcoats family of a 13-year-old girl who took her own life are hoping to win funding for the charity they set up in her memory as its year-anniversary approaches.
After Jenna Moriarty tragically passed away in 2013, her family started fundraising for various mental health charities in her honour. Last year, they set up the Jenna Moriarty Foundation which provides free counselling to young people in need.
One year on from the charity’s launch, Jenna’s family are appealing to shoppers in Ayrshire to help them secure funding from Tesco’s Bags of Help initiative.
Jenna’s brother Grant said: “The Jenna Moriarty Foundation was founded to address the ever-changing mental health challenges faced by our community here in the west of Scotland. Every penny we raise gets put right into those communities, funding mental health services like counselling sessions for young people who might not have the means or the option to wait for the NHS.
“We feel really deeply that all change is local, and we are now working across Glasgow, Paisley and throughout Ayrshire to deliver counselling to young people without the means for private counselling or the option of long wait-lists.
“We truly believe that every child deserves the chance to fulfil their highest potential and with a donation from Bags of Help, voted for by the people in the very communities we operate in, we could fund hundreds of hours of counselling sessions for vulnerable children and young people
“We are quickly approaching our first birthday as a group and we have been so grateful for the success we’ve had since launching and we have been given a great opportunity to be a charity partner as part of Tesco’s ‘Bags of Help’ initiative.
“All of our funding goes to young people in Glasgow and North Ayrshire, particularly around the Three Towns area where we grew up, and we wanted to make sure people in those communities knew of the charity’s work.”
Voting is open in Tesco stores throughout March and April.
Visit www.jennamoriartyfoundation.com for more information on the charity.
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