THE NEW Mayor has pledged to raise more than any other – after announcing his bid to raise £40,000 for his three official charities.

Rex Barnett says his goal, which is about £10,000 higher than the amount raised by outgoing Mayor David Wren during his tenure, will take ‘dedication’ – but he believes that he, the Mayoress, and his new team of New College interns, are up to the task.

The revelation came this weekend at The Willows headquarters in Prospect Place, Old Town – during its annual open day event.

On Saturday the charity, which helps people with issues ranging from stress due to break-ups in relationships to debt problems and severe trauma, was announced as one of the Mayor’s three charities alongside the Prospect Hospice and The Children’s Cancer And Leukaemia Movement (Calm).

He said: “I was in the right place this weekend after I accidentally deleted the speech I had planned on giving to the lovely people here at Willows, because I was stressed.

“This charity helps so many people and hopefully now I can give it some help by raising its profile and seeking desperately needed funds to help the people who seek out help at this lovely facility.

“I hope to be able to raise all of my charities more than £40,000 during my time as mayor.”

Stacey Hibberd, 18, one of two business students who was chosen as the Mayor’s intern from a group of applicants at New College, said she couldn’t wait to get to work on events including the Mayoress’s ladies lunch on June 18.

Mike Fisher, the executive director of the charity, which also gives national qualification and diploma level training to those wanting to become counsellors, said he was pleased to be one of the charities benefiting from the mayor’s efforts this year.

He said: “We have been in this location for just over a year and people enjoyed our first open day so much we decided to make it an annual event.

“This gives the community a chance to come in and see what we are all about.”

The charity, which has helped 2,000 since it’s inception in 1995, has already assisted about 80 people this year.

Mike added: “A common issue we see is low self esteem from things like domestic abuse, sometimes it can weeks or years until people recover but we see them through that through the short and long term.

“That’s what sets us apart from other charities because we provide long-term care, where-as other organisations only provide short-term.”

For more information on the charity visit www.willowscounselling.org.uk, call 01793 426650 or email willows@willowscounselling.org.uk.