Big rise in demand at North Yorkshire clothing bank

We're hearing how more people across North Yorkshire are struggling to afford clothes - despite working full time.

The clothing bank which is based in Brotherton says they've given out almost 7,000 packs of pre loved items so far this year - up from 5,000 last year.

Sally Parkinson helps run the project and says the cost of living is putting huge pressure on families: "We do a lot of nurses, doctors, teachers, a lot of people in different professions. I think because of the cost-of-living crisis at the moment, mortgages are going up, everything else is going up, but they don’t know where to turn so there’s no help for them. It’s all nice quality items."

"People just want their dignity back and with the clothing it opens up different doors, so that they can go for that job interview, they can go to college, they can go to university. Kids can go to school without being bullied and have those social activities after school by interacting instead of being stuck at home because they’ve only got the uniform to wear."

Sally tells us her own experiences of struggling to make ends meet made her want to get involved: "Mine was myself and my husband were working but we were always £5 over getting financial help, so we can both relate to what’s happening now, I think the majority of people that we're helping are working but are struggling but don’t get any financial help."

"Anybody can get in touch with us that is struggling we just take ages, circumstances postcodes and then we put those packs together so they get the seven days worth of clothing, underwear, pyjamas, coats, shoes if required. We post out or it can be collected. We have over 100 drop-off points on our website and Facebook page. Volunteers bring the clothing over to us and then we can pass it onto others. If people have a bit of clear out in the New Year, you know where it could go, it’s ideal and they know that those clothes are making a difference to somebody else’s life."

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.