Julie Walters to present prizes at Collyer’s

JPCT 02-06-12 S12230521A Plaistow and Ifold Diamond Jubilee Celebrations. Julie Walters -photo by Steve Cobb ENGSUS00120120206172832

The competition for students at The College of Richard Collyer was launched earlier this year by The Horsham and Crawley branch of Samaritans.

The successful designs will be sold by Samaritans Horsham as their Christmas cards for this year and will also take pride of place in an exhibition of all the entries now on show at The Capitol Gallery.

Sue Jago, director of Samaritans of Horsham and Crawley said: “We have a very positive relationship with the College of Richard Collyer which has been very supportive of all our outreach programmes.

“We are particularly grateful to Susan McAlister for her help in organising this competition and to her students for their enthusiasm in taking part. The judging panel was hugely impressed by the talent and thoughtfulness that had gone into the designs.”

Acress and writer Julie Walters, who lives near Loxwood, is Patron of Samaritans Horsham and will be attending the awards with the public invited to attend from 3.45pm on Tuesday, after which she has offered to stay at The Capitol for an hour or two to help sell the cards.

The cards will also be on sale from The Capitol Box Office from that date and are also on sale in the Horsham Museum Charity Card shop.

The message from Samaritans of Horsham and Crawley is that you don’t have to have suicidal thoughts to call them.

A spokesman said: “It doesn’t matter what your worry is. What matters is how big that worry feels for you. If the weight of something feels huge, then it is. Reluctance to burden loved ones or fear of being judged can lead to emotions being buried. It’s OK to talk to Samaritans about that growing anxiety before it turns to overwhelming despair. But if it does, they’ll be there for that too.

“At 21 Denne Road, listening volunteers come in around-the-clock for their shifts. Putting their own life experiences aside, they don their metaphorical Samaritans hats and concentrate 100 per cent on each caller. They never know who’s going to call or what they’ll talk about but they are always there so there’s no need to worry about waking them up!”

Face to face support is also available most days 9am and 9pm (phone 01403 276276 to check or go to www.samaritans.org/branches/samaritans-horsham-and-crawley) and you’ll get a comfy chair and a warm welcome.