A Rotary Club in Moray has donated thousands of pounds raised through Christmas collections to mental health charities.
For six weeks over the festive period Elgin Rotary Club members staged a series of fundraising drives across the town, and kind-hearted locals helped them amass £7,000.
Yesterday afternoon, rotarians met representatives from the seven selected mental health groups and awarded them each £1,000.
Elgin Rotary Club’s Jim Walker said: “Every year we choose a charity or group to award our Christmas donations to, and this year we thought it should be mental health.
“There is still a stigma attached to mental health problems, though I understand that one in four of us will at some point suffer a mental health episode.”
The seven charities chosen were Alzheimers Scotland, Samaritans, Cruse Bereavement Counselling, Scottish Association of Mental Health, CrossReach Counselling Moray, Turning Point Scotland and Enable.
The money will go towards a range of services which include helping dementia sufferers, efforts to reduce suicide levels, the wellbeing of bereaved people and children and adults with disabilities.
Mr Walker added: “We wanted to help these charities to get people thinking and talking more about mental health.
“We got a very positive response from the people of Moray when we were doing our collections. A lot of work went into it and we got a tremendous result.”