My Black Dog's Big Bash

On Thursday of last week, I ditched the NPPF bible (just for the afternoon mind you…!) and offered to help at the ‘My Black Dog’ charity event at Boisdale in Canary Wharf. A close friend of mine works for the charity and asked a couple of friends for help at the event she organised to raise money on their 4^th anniversary.

‘My Black Dog’ is a mental health charity that offers peer to peer support for people who are struggling with their mental health. The impact of the COVID pandemic has had a devastating impact on mental health in this country. During the pandemic, My Black Dog saw a HUGE increase in people using their service (2030% increase). In 2021 alone they saw double the quantity of guests from the previous year – over 6,000 people – and sadly, the numbers continue to rise. The link to the website is below:

https://www.myblackdog.co/

The charity is extremely small and receives no public funding like Calm, MIND etc (hence the reason I have been asked to help as sadly they don’t have enough people volunteering/funding and my friend has organised the event miraculously on a shoestring budget!)

The event was incredibly successful. All seats were filled, and it was packed full of celebs – Chris Evans, Rod Stewart, Ricky Wilson (yes from the Kaiser Chiefs!), Gaby Roslin, Jeffrey Archer - to name a few. On the night, the charity raised an impressive £85,000! 

Jeffrey ran the auction and did a Stirling job. Rod auctioned off his shoes unexpectedly and whilst walking home in his socks, managed to raise an unexpected £4,500 in doing so! Chris Evans also auctioned off the shirt on his back, but thankfully had a jacket to keep him warm.

It was a brilliant night expertly organised by my friend. I felt very proud being able to help out, and loved the few hours I spent helping.

Planning Potential is committed to supporting charities and encourage all our colleagues to dedicate time where they can, be that attending an event or undertaking a sponsored activity, to assist such important causes. We aim to be involved in many more charitable events in the future as part of our overall work to have a lasting, positive impact on the world around us.