A Surrey-based charity has received £1,000 for its “invaluable” work after being selected in a house building company’s community bursary scheme.

Talk Surrey, a charity which provides social support for former stroke patients who have developed aphasia, a communicative disability, received the donation from CALA Homes, a UK wide housing developer, at the end of December.

Thirty other well deserving charities in the region had applied for funding from The CALA Community Bursary which was initially set up last April. But after an agonizing wait, Talk Surrey found out that they would be one of the worthy recipients.

Nick Twine, managing director at the Thames branch of CALA Homes said: “We faced an incredibly tough decision when selecting the final successful groups for this year’s Community Bursary initiative after receiving a huge number of amazing applications from so many worthwhile causes. The work that Talk Surrey does is invaluable to so many and a fantastic example of how important it is to have a strong support network when coping with the challenges that life throws at us.”

The money will go towards funding weekly music therapy sessions for five different groups across the county, two in Guildford and one each in Knaphill, Walton and Ashford. The sessions will aid the charity’s overall goal of helping 75 of its current aphasia suffers, who may have issues reading, writing, speaking and understanding others, develop communication skills and confidence.

Joanna Matthews, the charity’s lead fundraiser said: “By supporting people with aphasia, Talk brings them back into the wider community, with many of them going on to become volunteers for the charity at a later stage in their recovery and giving back to others in the local area who need support.”

She added that Talk Surrey had plans to expand this 2018 with new “services into West Surrey to help more individuals who are recovering from aphasia.”