A remarkable 24-hour community Liveathon hosted at the Citizen Hub in St Neots has successfully raised an impressive £5,300 to date, with generous donations still flowing in. This significant sum will directly support year-round mental health and wellbeing provision throughout the town, ensuring vital services remain accessible to all residents.
A Day of Honest Conversation and Shared Experience
Strategically held on Blue Monday, the Liveathon united more than 40 dedicated speakers, passionate volunteers, and engaged community members for a full day of non-stop, candid conversation. The event focused on sharing lived experiences and fostering collective reflection on mental health challenges. Through its powerful digital presence, the Liveathon reached an audience exceeding 20,000 viewers across various social media platforms. This extensive reach played a crucial dual role: raising substantial public awareness about mental health issues while simultaneously generating funds for practical, preventative support measures.
Funding Direct Support: Wellbeing Wednesdays
The funds collected will be channelled directly into sustaining the highly successful Wellbeing Wednesdays programme at the Citizen Hub. This weekly initiative offers a comprehensive range of accessible wellbeing support, meticulously designed around community input and lived experience. The programme's offerings include invaluable one-to-one counselling sessions, nurturing breakfast clubs, communal meals, personalised coaching, and confidence-building activities. Its core philosophy is to provide early, relational support, aiming to intervene proactively before individuals reach a point of crisis.
Alex Hughes, the visionary founder of the Citizen Hub and host of the Liveathon, emphasised the event's deeper purpose. “This wasn’t about awareness for awareness’s sake,” Hughes stated. “It was about building the infrastructure our community genuinely needs to stay well. What we witnessed over those 24 hours was raw honesty, immense courage, and people consistently showing up for one another. That’s the very spirit this funding will nurture and support every single week.”
Collaborative Efforts and Broader Impact
The Liveathon was co-hosted by Danielle Bridge, a prominent local resident and CEO of Black Minds Matter UK. The event featured a diverse array of voices from sectors including health, education, business, social care, and the wider local community. Conversations delved into critical topics such as grief, addiction, recovery, leadership, inclusion, and personal resilience, providing a multifaceted exploration of mental wellbeing.
In a parallel fundraising effort, community partners Walk & Talk 4 Men have been undertaking independent initiatives to support the same vital cause. The group has collectively walked more than 800 miles this week, raising additional funds to bolster the Wellbeing Wednesdays programme, demonstrating the widespread community commitment to mental health.
The Heart of the Community: Citizen Hub
The Citizen Hub, based in St Neots, stands as a pioneering community-led space specifically designed to consolidate essential services, support networks, and opportunities within one trusted and welcoming environment. Since its opening, the Hub has provided support to thousands of local residents and continues to develop and refine its programmes, ensuring they are shaped directly by evolving community needs.
Donations to support the ongoing work of Wellbeing Wednesdays remain gratefully open, allowing the community to continue building this vital infrastructure for mental health support in St Neots.
