ILKLEY Grammar School has donated nearly £1,000 to the Clarke Foley Community Centre.

The centre, which is constituted as a charity to provide facilities for recreation, education and other leisure time occupations for people over the age of 50, was delighted to be chosen by the students in Key Stage 3 to benefit from their Charities Week activities at Ilkley Grammar School.

Rebecca Maskill, of Ilkley Grammar School, said: “The students were very keen to raise money for a local charity who have been affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.”

Students completed a range of fundraising activities throughout the week such as the Year 7 Marathon Challenge and the Year 8 audio book readathon, whilst Year 9 undertook ‘Chores for Charity’ at home.

Michele Ince, Business Manager at the Clarke Foley Community Centre congratulated all the students, in particular Annabelle Forster (holding the donation cheque) who ran a collection marathon with Ava Naylor, Emily Moore, Susanna Thompson and Alice Aynsley. The tutor group raised £625 in total, with over £500 of that coming from the marathon run.

The funds will be used to run a Talk and Thrive Men’s mental health support group which starts this week on Wednesday June 16 from 7pm to 8pm and a new Tuesday evening exercise class, aimed at adults of all ages wanting to improve their physical wellbeing.

Talk and Thrive is run by Jimmy Vaughan (co-founder and facilitator) and Pete Western (army veteran and co-facilitator).

Jimmy said: “It’s a men only mental health peer support group. It’s a safe place for men to come to chat about anything they want to in a safe, non judgmental place. It’s free and we supply all drinks of coffee, tea and biscuits.”

The group have a men’s group in Keighley and Crosshills and a female one in Keighley.

For more information visit the group’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/EmpoweringSurvivorsUK/

The ‘Cardio Energy’ class runs on Tuesday evenings providing energetic exercise.

Details of all these classes can be found online or by phoning the office mobile (07495 045310).

The Clarke Foley cafe is also open from 9.30am-4.30pm every weekday.