Derby City Mission has won a £1,000 festive financial boost thanks to nominations from the public.

Derby City Mission is one of 120 winning charities to receive an early Christmas gift of a £1,000 donation as part of specialist insurer Ecclesiastical’s annual 12 days of giving Christmas campaign.

Currently over 14 million people live in poverty in the UK, 4 million of those are children.  Can you imagine getting to an exciting time in the year and wondering how on earth you can afford to treat your children at Christmas? Unfortunately, this is the reality for many families and since 1996, we have been reaching out to underprivileged families working in partnership with a number of churches and businesses in Derby through donations of new toys for boys and girls between the ages of 0-17.

The donation from Ecclesiastical will go towards buying gifts for these children. In 2019 over 460 children received a bag of Christmas presents, including two main presents, a book, cuddly toy and chocolate, kindly donated by local churches, schools, businesses and individuals. We were able to support families we were already working with through our debt & benefit advice service, as well as others nominated by churches and charities that we partner with.

Viv Merkelt, Derby City Mission explains: "In 2020, we were able to provide a Christmas gift for 465 children. This donation is vital in supporting this work. The gifts are more than just something to open on Christmas morning, they represent hope and love."

Members of the public were invited to nominate a charity to win a share of £120,000 and Derby City Mission was amongst the winners which were drawn at random.

Mark Hews, group chief executive at Ecclesiastical, said: “As a commercial company with a charitable purpose, giving back is at the heart of our business. We would like to thank every single person who took the time to nominate a good cause as part of our annual 12 days of giving Christmas campaign. We know that £1,000 can make a huge difference to the incredible work that charities do and we’re looking forward to seeing how this financial boost will change lives for the better.”