THE Devonshire Freemasons recently made a grant of £10,560 to the Eddystone Trust in recognition of the extra costs and increased difficulties the charity has encountered during the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Eddystone Trust is an independent charity that has been operating across the South West for nearly 30 years.

It delivers a range of services to people that loosely comes under the heading of sexual health, encompassing health education, provision of prevention services and much needed support to people living with HIV with some services also relating to wider sexual health.

The current pandemic leaves the clients it supports in the category of high risk to infection from Covid-19.

At a meeting which took place at the headquarters of the Eddystone Trust, the Clay Factory near Ivybridge, Peter Keaty the Assistant Provincial Grand Master of the Devonshire Freemasons, accompanied by Reuben Ayres and Walker Lapthorne, met Mags Davies, Chief Executive of the Eddystone Trust, to present her with a framed certificate denoting the grant.

The grant was made to support a one-year project. The bulk of the resource required is for extra staffing costs; the groups need to be developed and co-ordinated with the need to train and support volunteers. To achieve this the charity needs to employ somebody for one-and-a-half days-a-week, also needed is support equipment comprising of five computer tablets plus five sim cards.

The grant from Devonshire and Somerset Freemasons came through the Masonic Charitable Foundation, which is funded by Freemasons, their families and friends, from across England and Wales and the David Medlock Family Trust.

In response to the extraordinary need created by the coronavirus pandemic, Freemasonry is providing special funding of £2.75 million for projects helping those who are particularly affected by the virus. This extra money comes on top of the estimated £45 million given to charity every year by Freemasons.