Eighty charities across the country have benefitted from a regional publisher’s annual charity scheme.

Newsquest’s Cash for Charities campaign for 2022 prompted the group to make donations totalling £128,000 to good causes in the areas served by its newspapers.

For the first time, donations were made to charities in Norfolk and Suffolk following Newsquest’s takeover of Archant.

The awards are granted through the Gannett Foundation, the charitable arm of Newquest’s American parent company Gannett.

Newsquest brand, marketing and compliance manager Debbie Hellaby, pictured, said: “As in 2021 we continue to believe that our readers are best placed to identify those charities who are most in need of our support.

“The 2022 activity also ensured that in challenging times we were able to directly support the community initiatives that mattered most to our readers, particularly those that may previously have been overlooked.

“We identified the impact that the £128k has made to the local communities via the use of the Global Goals that were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

“These goals helped us to identify that the readers chose to grant the highest percentages of the fund to support primary issues including physical health, poverty, disadvantage and debt, wellbeing, and community cohesion with targeted benefit toward children and young people, people in care or suffering serious illness or those with a disadvantaged or low income.

“It has been a privilege to be involved in this project, liaising with all the charities and witnessing firsthand the direct impact that the contribution makes in our local communities.”