The trustee of a community group in Brandlesholme that distributes clothing and accessories to families feeling the pinch says there is still a stigma around asking for help.

Jordan McCrimmon, who runs Bury Family Bank from Brandlesholme Community Centre, says those who need help to access everyday items such as school uniform can be reluctant to do so for fear of judgement.

The Brandlesholme Road bank, which was taken over by Jordan last year, provides items such as clothing, toiletries stationery and baby-wear free of charge for those who need them, operates on a self-referral basis from Brandlesholme Community Centre.

Jordan says requests for items have increased over the past few months due to the soaring cost of living, with many needing help with essentials clothing such as uniforms but feel uncomfortable asking their child’s school for help.

Jordan said: “People don’t want to do that because they’re then scared and think ‘am I going to be in trouble, ‘am I going to be looked down upon?’

“Whereas when it’s from Bury Family Bank, they know it can be self-referrals so it’s not that you have to be under a social worker or anything like that in order to get help.

“We make it very known that we know that everyone struggles and we’re not here to judge anybody.”

“It’s hard to ask for help, but its even harder if you’ve got to go to the school.”

Like many food and clothing banks like it, volunteers are seeing more people and families who, despite being in work, are still unable to make ends meet.

In addition, the bank has also been helping newly arrived refugees from Ukraine who rely on assistance from the government to get by as they resettle.

“We’ve also had to start helping a lot of Ukrainian refugees, they’ve got children as well, so they might have to come to Brandlesholme for a food parcel then also come to Bury Family Bank because they need clothing items.”

“We work with Eagle’s Wings, which is for refugees and helps a lot of asylum seekers, they know they can come to Bury Family Bank.”

As a result, the bank has found themselves in need of more donations from the local community and often post it’s most needed items on it’s Facebook page.

“We’ve had people coming in crying because they can’t afford to feed their kids or the electric bill’s gone up and they still want to keep their kids warm.”

“A lot of people at the moment, they don’t know where to go for help, so we’re trying to get the word out about what we do, so then people know they don’t need to struggle on their own.”

You can contact Bury Family Bank at buryfamilybank@gmail.com, on 0161 797 7377 or through its Facebook Page.