A HOME care company is organising a Christmas ball to raise money for a homeless charity which is struggling financially.

Amanda Shepherd, Lotus Home Care director, is hosting the charity ball next Wednesday evening to raise money for Barnsley Churches Drop-in Project (BCDP) after finding out that the project did not have enough funds to continue running the charity after March next year.

Amanda said: “We try and raise money for a charity every year and when we heard how much financial trouble BCDP was in we decided to help them. It’s such a good cause and it is the definition of a community pulling together and helping one another.

“We were all really shocked when we found out that the charity would not be able to run after March next year and felt that it was our duty to step in and do what we can for them.

“We have a lot of care staff who in turn have a lot of family and we thought that would be a great platform to organise a big Christmas do to raise as much money for the charity as we could.

“We would like to thank the Holiday Inn for providing a free function room for the event and also all the local shops that have donated prizes for the fund raising event.”

A spokesperson for BCDP said: “BCDP has been at the forefront of providing free meals, clothing, bedding and toiletries to the poor, homeless and addicted people in Barnsley for 16 years. It is the only service of this sort in town.

“The volunteers make welcome all those who come to their drop in seeking help. No one is turned away and all are respected.

“Because of dire financial circumstances most of their clients cannot afford to make the contribution to the charity so that BCDP relies upon gifts, donations and grants to survive.

“As things stand BCDP only have funds to allow them to continue serving the people of Barnsley up to March 2019.”

The ball will be held on Wednesday at 6.30pm. For tickets, call 611116.