One of Britain’s best-known TV presenters is doing a special event for a Huddersfield charity and has made an impassioned plea for people to support it.

Eamonn Holmes has become patron for the Platform 1 mental health charity in the town and is to hold an event called An Evening with Eamonn Holmes in October.

Eamonn – who now presents the breakfast show on GB News after many years on ITV’s This Morning – first saw the charity on BBC’s The One Show and when he discovered more about how Platform 1 is a vital frontline service for people in mental health crisis he agreed to become its patron.

Platform 1 has faced some tough times financially in recent months so project leader Gez Walsh and Eamonn came up with the idea of the fundraiser at Huddersfield Town Hall on October 27 at 7.30pm.

Eamonn said: “On the night at Huddersfield Town Hall I’m going to be in the psychiatrist’s chair and Jez is going to interview me.

“It’ll be a trip down memory lane – the programmes I’ve worked on, the people I’ve met, the people I’ve really liked, the people I didn’t, the politicians, the presidents, the Royals, the pop stars, film stars and growing up in The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

“So please help us out by coming to the evening. With small charities like this every pound counts so please let’s make as much as we can to give Platform 1 the funding it needs to literally keep on saving lives.

“It’s so important this service survives. The more seats we sell, the more we’ll secure Platform 1’s existence in the future and the free help it gives to local people.”

Eamonn has seen the terrible impact of mental health in his own family.

He is married to TV presenter Ruth Langsford and her sister, Julia Johnson, took her own life in 2019 at the age of 62, devastating the family.

Eamonn, 63, said: “Julia had suffered from depression for years but felt it was impossible to get help on the NHS – and that’s not the fault of people who work in NHS mental health services, it’s just that it’s not resourced.

“That’s why charities like Platform 1 and other small mental health charities are so important and need to be supported by people living in the areas they serve. Platform 1 is a small charity doing amazing things in a place where its services are clearly desperately needed.”

Tickets for the event cost £25 and to buy them go to the Kirklees town halls website HERE. Click on the box for October events and then scroll down to the show.

Eamonn’s video message can be viewed on Huddersfield Hub’s Facebook page.

Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content and copywriting.

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