Manchester-based mental health charity, Self Help, has been shortlisted as a finalist in the 2016 E3 Business Awards, which will be held at the Macron Stadium in Bolton on Friday 3rd June.

The charity, which offers a wide range of support, services and opportunities for people living with mental health difficulties such as anxiety, depression, phobias and panic attacks, was selected from amongst hundreds of nominees to become one of the finalists for the prestigious Charity of the Year category.

Speaking on behalf of the charity, Founder and Chief Officer, Nicky Lidbetter said:

“I am delighted that our innovative mental health support services have received recognition at these awards. It is a testament to the hard-working, dedicated team who support people in times of great need.

“Our services have had such a positive impact on so many local lives – we reached 12,900 people last year alone through services such as The Sanctuary, which provides support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I hope that this achievement will help to raise the profile of The Sanctuary and will lead to greater commissioning of our crisis services.”

“Each year, it becomes more of an achievement to win a finalist’s place,” said Mubarak Chati, managing director of 1 Events Media, which hosts the E3 Awards. “Every year since we’ve started, we’ve seen an increase in nominations and a corresponding increase in quality. This year, across all sixteen award categories, we’ve seen an increase of around 25% on last year. That’s on top of last year’s increase which was itself up more than 30% on 2014.

“We’ve had nominations from throughout the North West and we’ve seen real strength in all areas. One of the big surprises has been the number of entries from social enterprises. We had so many, in fact, that we decided to introduce a seventeenth award category, specifically for charities. It’s always been a key purpose of the Awards to celebrate the achievement of all parts of the community – not just the mainstream – so to see charities, young entrepreneurs and women coming forward in such numbers is very gratifying indeed.

“Given the number and the high standard of entries, we certainly gave the Nominations Panel a difficult job. They have risen to the challenge, though, and their final selections represent the very best of the whole North West region. For Self Help to have been named as a finalist for 2016 is an achievement of which it should be very proud.”

More information about the E3 Business Awards, including a full list of finalists, can be found at www. e3businessawards.co.uk.