A WEST Dorset mental health charity is appealing for support from Christmas shoppers – but it won’t cost them a penny.

TheHorseCourse, set up by Harriet Laurie from Askerswell in 2010, is helping more people than ever and this year has been its busiest yet.

But it is a charity that costs a lot to run and while the main income is from grants and foundations and a percentage from commissioning, community fundraising has an important part to play, says CEO Harriet.

And that’s where Christmas shoppers can help – anyone who shops at the Co-op, Waitrose in Dorchester or Amazon can help the charity.

Harriet said: “We are delighted to be chosen by the Co-op to be in its community fund this year. If Co-op members just spend a moment logging into their account (https://membership.coop.co.uk/sign-in) https://membership.coop.co.uk/causes/23710)

and choosing us one per cent of the value of all Co-op own brand goods they buy will go directly to us.

“Over the course of the next year that could really mount up if people get the message and go to a little trouble to sign up.

“We are passionate about what we do here at our Weymouth HQ helping people from the age of eight upwards improve their mental health. The success stories we hear - of how our participants are changing their lives for the better after doing our Restart course keep us going.

“But of course we do need help to pay for it all and this Co-op fund is a really easy way people can do that.

“The Co-op isn’t the only big business supporting TheHorseCourse – anybody shopping on Amazon can also support us at no extra cost to themselves.

“Again they do have to spend a couple of minutes and log into smile.amazon.co.uk and choose us. People only need to do that once and we’ll get money from each sale as long as it’s from the smile.amazon website.

“And Waitrose shoppers in Dorchester can choose us for this month’s green token scheme.

“We are so grateful for all the support we get and especially at this time of year when we need to make sure all 14 of our horses have enough to eat, have warm and dry rugs and are in tip top health so they can continue to do the brilliant job they do every week.”