A NURSERY on the outskirts of Darlington has chosen a mental health agency as its charity of the year.

High Bank Day Nursery in Stapleton, near Darlington, has chosen Darlington Mind to benefit from its fundraising efforts following suggestions made by parents and staff.

It also complements a new initiative introduced recently at High Bank which involves staff receiving free counselling sessions if they want to discuss any issues relating to their mental health.

And it comes on the back of recent statistics which show that 13 per cent of the global population (971 million people) suffer from some kind of mental disorder.

High Bank is now busy planning the events it hopes will help to exceed the £2,000 it raised for 2018/19 charity of the year, the Great North Air Ambulance Service.

High Bank Day Nursery Manager Hayley Grainger said: “Mental health is an area we’re looking at closely within the nursery, including offering counselling sessions to any members of staff who would benefit from private one-to-ones; so it’s nice to be supporting a charity which does so much good helping people in our area.”

Darlington Mind is the area’s largest voluntary sector mental health agency and provides services from bases in Darlington, Northallerton, Bedale, Richmond, Colburn, Stokesley, Catterick and Bainbridge.

All the money raised by High Bank will go towards Mind's local services.