Lubrizol praises mental health projects after it gives them a £250 helping hand

Lubrizol praises mental health projects after it gives them a £250 helping hand

Derbyshire chemical company Lubrizol UK has praised the organisers of two online mental health projects after they won an online Dragons’ Den-style charity pitch event that was sponsored by the firm.

The company, based in Hazelwood, has congratulated Gaby Goodchild and Helen Woodford, who walked away with £700 and £300 respectively for their new ventures after taking part in the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Soup online event last week.

The event, which was previously known as Hard Heads and Hang Ups and is usually held at the THiNK in NG meeting space in Nottingham, sees participants pitch for funding for mental health projects in front of a panel of judges.

They pick the winner, helped by members of the audience, who each paid £5 to take part. Their money then goes into the charity pot, alongside a £250 donation from Lubrizol, whose representative, Karen Clegg, was one of the judges.

The event was held online this year because of the coronavirus lockdown and four people pitching for fun and Gaby, a former NHS community dietician who now runs her own freelance business, The Healthful Dietitian from a clinic in West Bridgford, Nottingham, was judged the overall winner.

She wants to launch The Happy Eating Project, an online course for parents and children to help them change their relationship with food, which can be at the heart of a wealth of mental problems.

Helen, an art teacher who runs Create! Art School, also in West Bridgford, was declared the runner-up and will put her money towards setting up Together in Art, an online art class aimed at people who are experiencing anxiety and loneliness.

Karen Clegg, who is a chair of Lubrizol’s Charity and Community committee, said: “We were really proud to be sponsoring this event once again and we were delighted with how big and widespread the online audience was, which meant the overall pot of monies was £1,000.

“We had a very engaged audience, who asked some excellent questions, and both Gaby and Helen were delighted and completely amazed to win their funding.

“However, they were both worthy winners and I’m looking forward to finding out how they will get on.”

Gaby said: “I was amazed to have won the money. The other pitches were so good that I thought they would win, but I’m extremely grateful and will use the funding to help seek input from a therapist for my online project.

“I want to help parents to understand how they can teach their children to eat intuitively and take control of their diet, rather than suffer mental issues concerned with how much other people tell them about how much they should be eating, or what foods are good or bad.”

Helen added: “Teaching online during the coronavirus has been a real eye-opener and it has inspired me to reach out to people who would not normally come along to one of my classes by setting up a new online class.

“I enjoyed the pitch and some of the questions were extremely hard, but I told them how art has an incredible ability to help people grow and increase their confidence and I’m thrilled that they backed my project.”

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