A Newcastle retailer was today celebrating being named The National Lottery’s top fundraising independent retailer in the North East.

To date, customers of Barras Bridge Post Office & Store in Northumberland Street have helped raise a staggering £3 million pounds for life-changing National Lottery projects.

To mark the outstanding achievement Ian Middlemiss, Postmaster and store-owner, was presented with a commemorative plaque by Newcastle North MP, Catherine McKinnell.  The presentation took place at the annual Christmas lunch and dance at National Lottery funded Denton Youth & Community Project,  (DYCP).

Ian Middlemiss said: ‘We were amazed to be told we were the top fundraising independent retailer in the North East. It’s great to get recognition for all the hard work we put in to promoting and selling The National Lottery and it’s wonderful to know that it really benefits local projects. The plaque will take pride of place in the store, so that our customers can see what a truly life-changing difference they have made.”

Catherine McKinnell, MP for Newcastle North, said:  “I’m really pleased to continue to support the Denton Youth & Community Project, and delighted to be part of this Christmas dinner and present Ian with his commemorative plaque.

“This event really demonstrates how the community in Denton comes together to support each other, and the DYCP is a great example of the hundreds of thousands of life-changing projects across the UK that are helped by National Lottery funding. Of course, this is only possible with the hard work of retailers like the Barras Bridge Post Office & Store.”

The National Lottery supports a wide range of arts, sport, heritage, charity and voluntary projects. To date, National Lottery players have raised over £30 billion for National Lottery projects, with more than 420,000 individual awards made across the UK – an average of 135 lottery grants for every postcode district.

In the North East, over £1.2 billion has been invested into more than 20,000 National Lottery projects throughout the region.

Denton Youth & Community Project recently received £391,000 from the BIG Lottery Fund, the largest distributor of National Lottery funding, to maintain the valuable community work that it undertakes in the local area with people of all ages. It follows a similar grant in 2010 that helped get the project up and running.

The Christmas lunch was cooked for elderly members of the Denton community by young people and staff involved with the project. It was planned and overseen by David Randall, who is part of the Young Peoples Management Group at the centre.

David, 17, recently went to catering college due to DYCP help and is training to become a chef.  He credits DYCP with helping him, saying: “Projects like the Denton Youth & Community Project are so important to local people of all ages.  Without their support I might not have gone to catering college, where I learnt new skills to help with my future. Now I’m starting out as a chef I was really pleased to come back and help cook for everyone. And it wouldn’t be happening without National Lottery funding, it really is important”

The project manager of Denton Youth & Community Project, Dave Hewitt said: “National Lottery funding has been crucial for us at Denton Youth & Community Project, just as I know it has been for hundreds of thousands of projects around the UK. Quite frankly, without the funding we wouldn’t be here to serve Christmas lunch to our elderly community members – so National Lottery players and store owners such as Ian Middlemiss should be very proud that they’re making a real difference in their area.”

Jackie O’Sullivan, Director of the National Lottery Good Causes, said: “The National Lottery supports projects people really care about, such as the Denton Youth & Community Project. We couldn’t do it though without the efforts and support of independent retailers such as the team at Barras Bridge Post Office & Store and their customers who play The National Lottery.”

For more information on projects that have received National Lottery funding, go to: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk<http://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/