Ref. 29657-28Swindon Samaritans have a grand reason to celebrate thanks to a cheque from Swindon energy supplier RWE Innogy.

Barbara Kennedy, director of Swindon Samaritans, received the donation to the tune of £1,000 from Innogy's programme finance manager, Vanessa Edwards.

Barbara said: "This is a huge amount of money for us and we are delighted. It costs over £100 a day to run our centre, and we run 365 days a year. We rely entirely on our shop, local donations and fundraising.

"We do not receive any statutory or Government funding. We need and want our premises to be accessible and comfortable for all volunteers and callers. Donations such as this are an enormous help."

Vanessa, 29, said: "We have a charitable committee and we decided to support the Swindon Samaritans.

"I know someone who volunteers there so I know how important their work is for people in the town.

"People do get depressed and the Samaritans is an excellent organisation to help people through harder times."

The Samaritans shop, in Curtis Street, is open from Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm, and on Saturdays from 10am to 1pm.

You can call Samaritans on 08457 909090 24 hours a day or send an email to jo@samaritans.org