Forecourt and convenience retailer Maxol has raised £23,000 in Northern Ireland for its charity partner, Aware.

Brian Donaldson, chief executive officer at Maxol, said: “We’re extremely proud of our partnership with Aware and are delighted to have raised these much-needed funds for them. We also want to thank all our fantastic staff and loyal customers for their continued support and for getting behind our top up by 10 pence and coffee fundraising campaigns. It is truly because of them that we’re able to support Aware in this way. 

“As a family-owned company, we pride ourselves on being right at the heart of our communities and we feel there is no better way to do this than by raising money for such a worthwhile cause. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Aware into 2019.”

Karen Collins, chief executive at Aware, said: “Thank you to all the Maxol customers and staff who contributed to the fundraising campaigns during the summer and at Christmas and helped raise such an extraordinary amount of money for Aware. We’re very grateful to Maxol for providing us with fantastic fundraising opportunities and helping to raise the profile of Aware.

“We are looking forward to continuing our partnership with Maxol and running similar fundraising campaigns in the future.”

Maxol ran companywide fundraising initiatives to raise money for Aware NI including ‘Top up by Ten’ in the summer, where customers were invited to add a 10p donation to their bill, and the Christmas Coffee Cup Campaign in November and December, where Maxol donated 10p for every coffee sold.

Aware provides information, education and support on the illness of depression and delivers wellbeing programmes into schools, workplaces and communities across Northern Ireland. The funds raised by Maxol will go towards helping Aware increase awareness of positive mental wellbeing in local communities and help to provide support groups and education programmes across the country.