A Bury centre dedicated to helping those struggling is now appealing for support to ensure it continues to be at the heart of the community.

Topping Fold Community Centre has been running for more than 20 years and runs independently, however with rising costs it is struggling to survive.

The community centre have set up a GoFundMe crowdfunding appeal to try and raise money to stay open.

An appeal for donations has been made - to donate please visit https://gofund.me/4d5f63b6

The centre runs a food bank, trips for children in school holidays, a youth club and a safe space for anyone Monday to Friday.

Volunteer Michelle Heywood said: “We don’t get any help from the council, so we have to pay all our own bills and we’re self-sufficient.

“With the rising costs of everything we’re really struggling. We help the local community, we’re in a very deprived area.

“We run a food bank, we have a youth club on a Friday evening, we run trips for children in the holidays.

“We’re trying to get things in to help all this and we’re really struggling to the point where the bank account is nearly empty.

“We really need some help. Every time we try to apply for grants and funding, we’re not getting any because we’re not a charity.”

During Covid, the centre delivered around 50 to 60 food bags a week and to this day they still have lots of people coming in for food parcels.

They rely on donations for the food bank, as well as receiving donations from Tesco, Bircle Church and East Ward.

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Michelle added: “With our food bank we don’t limit them, they can get what they need, if they’re a big family we don’t limit them to one of each thing because people are on hard times.

“We have people coming in here who work, it’s a top up because of the rising cost of living.

“People come here who have even been refused at other food banks. We don’t do that here.

“You never know someone’s situation.”

The centre has also helped with cutting back on anti-social behaviour in the area with running a youth club for over 20 years.

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Chair Jennifer Heywood said that the community centre has been a success story for years.

She said: “There was a man who was in a bad way, he wasn’t claiming benefits, he was living without gas and electricity, and he had no money.

“We got our heads together and paid for a skip and cleared out his flat for him, it was awful.

“When we see him now, it makes me proud because he’s off drugs, he has a partner, goes shopping and his flat is immaculate.

“A lot of people around here wouldn’t survive without this community centre.”

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Michelle said: “Without the community centre, the estate would be a mess, the anti-social behaviour would increase because they put pride into this.

“When we have events they try and contribute, they’ll come and help set up and clean and help the elderly people in and out of the building.

“Without that there’d be no community spirit.”