Okehampton’s Co-op announced last week that it had raised over £4,000 for local children’s mental health organisation Tor Support Services throughout the last year.

Over the last 12 months, Okehampton Co-op members raised a total of £4,395.34 for the mental health charity through the Co-op Community Fund, which sees 2p of every pound spent on certain Co-op-branded products given to a local charity.

Helene Cox, a trustee of Tor Support Services, said: ‘It’s fantastic. This year they have been very supportive. It’s lovely that people know about or support us which is which is a nice thing.

‘The demand for our services is higher since lockdown. It was going up year on year anyway. But it has grown significantly since the pandemic and we are doing our best to make sure that we can respond to that, so every every contribution we get is valuable but particularly when it comes from a local source like that.’

The Tor Support Services has seen a significant increase in the number of primary school children following the end of lockdown and the Co-op’s money is set to continue to provide free counselling sessions to children suffering with mental health problems.

Ms Cox said: ‘We’re seeing a lot of anxiety and stress with the return to school. We’re seeing primary school children not managing or needing support to deal with a return to kind of “normal” life, particularly at the younger end if they don’t have a clear memory of what life was like before the pandemic. Earlier this year we had a waiting list of 32 from this age group alone.

‘We’re also seeing an increase in issues like gender dysphoria and that kind of area, but really across the board. We’re just seeing an increase in the number of people needing a bit of support to help them deal with return to life as normal really.’

The charity has seen referrals grow over 30 percent since the pandemic. In the year March 2020-2021 the charity supported 134 young people which had risen to 205 in March 2022.

In response the charity has increased the counselling team and included more expertise to support younger children who, said Ms Cox, are often unable to verbalise what they are feeling. It has also increased the number of sessions it delivers each week to 59 sessions each week, up from 42 sessions per week last year.

Tor Support provides free, confidential counselling and psychotherapy services to young people in crisis, who live in and around Okehampton.

Children needing the service suffer with issues ranging from anxiety and depression, self-harming and relationship problems to gender dysphoria, substance abuse and suicidal ideation.

Some also suffer from the effects of physical and mental abuse and neglect.

Anyone wishing to support the Tor Support Services can donate through the charity’s Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/torsupportservices.