CHARITIES are celebrating after winning cash grants thanks to a scheme run by the Gazette’s parent company.

The Gannett Foundation is providing £125,000 to charities across Britain.

The winners from the South East region - who shared £20,000 - were whittled down to eight, three of which are based in Colchester.

Headway Essex, Colchester Phoenix Amateur Swimming Club, and Colchester Korban Project have all received a share of the Cash for Charities Grant.

Colchester Phoenix Amateur Swimming Club runs pool sessions for those with disabilities and has received a grant of £1,758.69.

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The club’s chairman, Theresa Higgins, a former mayor of Colchester, outlined just how much of a difference the grant would make.

She said: “Apart from charging the parents for the sessions, you have to get money in other ways.

“We have a mixture of people with different disabilities, and we also had Ellie Challis who has moved on to become a Paralympian.”

The disabilities of the participants include Down’s Syndrome, autism, amputees and epilepsy, with the money received to go towards SwimPix cards, and communication sets to help non-verbal swimmers.

Headway Essex, which helps adults recover from life-changing head injuries, received £1,676.89 from the Cash for Charities grant.

Jo Hockey, the trust and grants manager at the charity, said the money will be a huge benefit given the number of charity events cancelled by Covid-19 in the past two years.

She said: “A big part of our income was through events, but we only ran our first event in September – so our fundraising income has been really impacted.

“For some people we make life-changing differences – for others the differences may seem really small, but it makes a real improvement to their quality of life.”

Colchester Korban Project was the final charity to benefit from the scheme, receiving £940.70.

The charity which helps people aged 18 to 25 facing homelessness by providing them with what is known as a hub house and a move-on house, before they can move on to living independently.

Chief executive Mark Wood said: “It’s brilliant to see that people are thinking of us – the more we are known then it’s a massive encouragement.”