It is with a heavy heart that we have to announce the closure of You Raise Me Up due to a lack of ongoing financial support.

We have loved being able to support so many families for the last 15 years in memory of Megan and Jane Brooks.
We would like to thank everyone who has supported the charity for the past 15 years and we are so grateful to have had this opportunity for as long as we have.
We also pay tribute to all our staff, counsellors and supporters – including many local businesses – for all the hard work they have done. It has been a privilege working with everyone.
You Raise Me Up has been an incredibly special place for so many and we will treasure the experiences we have had and the wonderful families we have met.
This decision has not been easy and we have explored all viable options, but unfortunately due to a lack of sustained financial support and rising operational costs we can no longer operate.
This is an incredibly difficult time and we know how much upset this will cause. But we are immensely proud of everything You Raise Me Up has achieved. Megan and Jane’s legacy will continue beyond the organisation itself.
As of now we will no longer be operating. Our priority now is to ensure a responsible and compassionate wind-down.
Should you have any questions, please email trustees@youraisemeup.co.uk

Local Author donates books

We are very grateful to Renowned local author, Alex Askaroff has donated copies of his book Off the Beaten Track to YRMU for a suggested donation of £10 avaialble to buy at our Support Centre Coffee Shop now.

Writer and master craftsman Alex Askaroff has spent a lifetime in the sewing industry and is considered one of the foremost experts of pioneering machines and their inventors. Internationally renowned, Alex has written extensively for trade magazines, radio, television, books and publications worldwide. You may have seen him on the BBC show, The Great British Sewing Bee or one of his many Youtube clips. His Sewalot website is the No1 site of its kind in the world.

“Born of a Russian/French father and Austrian/English mother, I grew up in 1960’s England and witnessed the birth of our modern age. One of six boys our house was always an explosion of noise.

Later I studied engineering and eventually became a self-employed engineer, and after many years a master craftsman, running my own specialised business in sewing machinery, a trade that I had known since a child.

As I carry out my trade around the rural south east corner of England I collect fascinating true stories along the way. When I have enough I go to print. When I first published my stories I would never have guessed that they would prove so popular that a quarter of a century later I would still be being asked for more! Seven No1 New releases on Amazon, WOW.”

Alex, not only writes academic books on the early pioneers in the sewing industry, known as The Sewing Machine Kings, but also semi-biographical books.

Amazon writes “At last, after four years, his long awaited follow up to Glory Days, Off The Beaten Track, is here.

It was usually the privileged few who made footnotes in history, went on Grand Tours, wrote poetry, and had great adventures.

They didn’t have to work in a mill or down a mine, in a factory or a cramped office six days a week, burning away their youth and energy to make ends meet.

Alex’s books are filled with the rest of us, the ‘invisible multitude’ who have led lives no less extraordinary than the rich and famous.

They may not have big houses or statues in their name, but nonetheless, they are the people who make this wonderful world turn.

Here are their inspiring stories.”

Thank you Alex for your wonderful donation