A COMPANY associated with a proposed development on Egley Road has raised £30,000 for Samaritans at its annual charity golf day.
Cala Homes (Thames), alongside Barchester Healthcare, has secured a resolution to grant full planning permission for 86 new homes and a specialist 62-bed dementia care home at the ten-acre site between Woking and Mayford.
The charity golf day, at Foxhills Country Club in Chertsey, hosted 18 groups made up of Cala colleagues and subcontractor teams.
More than 70 people took part and the donation made by Cala will help Samaritans answer almost 6,000 calls for help. It is part of a larger pledge that Cala launched with Samaritans in 2020 which calls for better mental and emotional health support for middle-aged men.
One of the most high-risk groups for suicide, men in England remain three times more likely to take their own lives than women, with middle-aged men having the highest rates of suicide. The risk of suicide is significantly higher for those men who work in the construction sector, compared with the national average.
Sarah Pasco, managing director at Cala Thames, said: “Our employees have responded really positively to this partnership and it’s great to have raised such an amount in one day,
“We were delighted to donate more than £30,000 to Samaritans and this will massively support the charity. We were also pleased to raise this money through an event that was enjoyed by so many of our colleagues as well.
“Supporting charities both nationally and locally is a huge part of our DNA here at Cala Homes in Thames, which is why we also have multiple community pledges across our developments in the region.”
Head of corporate partnerships at Samaritans, Richard Amos, said: “We’re so grateful to everyone at Cala Thames for supporting Samaritans. Every penny raised will help ensure our volunteers can continue to be there for anyone struggling to cope, any time of day or night.”
Since the launch of the partnership in 2020, Cala has raised more than £456,000 in support of the Samaritans.