London North Eastern Railway, through its Customer and Community Investment Fund (CCIF) is helping a north-east-based charity to encourage and inspire people to be more physically active and to take care of their mental health.

The charity is Rise, which is based in North Shields but works throughout the north-east including Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland to help make it easier and more attractive for people to be physically active.

The charity aims to use the power of physical activity to help people in those communities to improve their quality of life.

As well as being funded by London North Eastern Railway’s Customer and Community Investment Fund the charity is funded and supported by Sport England.

Working closely with regional partners in the health, education and transport sectors, it uses physical activity to help solve inequalities and some of the biggest issues affecting the communities in which the charity works.

Funding from the Customer and Community Investment Fund will help continue with its ‘Healthy Minds for Healthy Lives’ project.

London North Eastern Railway was prompted to help the charity after being inspired by the great work its colleagues had seen being carried out in Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Rise is just one of many charities and organisations that London North Eastern Railway has helped by funding more than one hundred projects across its network. They include:

• Helping people find the opportunities to get into work.
• Promoting mental health and wellbeing.
• Helping people suffering from loneliness or social isolation.
• Initiatives to improve the environment.

We are thrilled to have been successful in our bid for funding. Rise’s team carries out life-changing work in Berwick with men aged 16-30, using the power of physical activity to address a range of wider issues including mental health, unemployment and poverty. This valuable funding will help us continue and expand this work – and change the lives of many more people. Thank you to LNER – as well as everyone who supported us. We’re so grateful.

Jade Scott, Strategic Lead for place at Rise

We’re proud to support the Healthy Minds for Healthy Lives project through our Customer and Community Fund. Our communities along our route are very important to us. We are delighted the funding will help Rise in its work to improve health and well-being across the North East, making a real difference to people’s lives.

Rachael Wilson, London North Eastern Railway Community Investment Manager