LilyAnne’s Honorary Patron
Sacha Bedding MBE
The person who helped shape LilyAnne’s into the charity it is today
Sacha’s belief, guidance and encouragement helped transform LilyAnne’s from a community coffee shop into a mental health counselling charity supporting people across Hartlepool.
In loving memory
Sacha’s legacy lives on through the charity he helped guide, encourage and shape into the organisation it is today.
The story behind LilyAnne’s
LilyAnne’s did not begin as the charity people know today. It started as a community coffee shop with a simple purpose: bringing people together, creating connection and offering a welcoming space for those who needed it.
Sacha Bedding saw the potential in LilyAnne’s long before it became a mental health counselling charity. Through his national role with Community Organisers and the Power to Change Empowering Places programme, he provided support, coaching, encouragement and belief at a crucial stage in our journey.
His guidance helped us understand how a small community space could become something much more powerful: a charity rooted in mental health, emotional wellbeing, loneliness prevention, counselling and community-led change.
How Sacha helped transform LilyAnne’s
Sacha’s support was practical, strategic and deeply personal. He helped us grow with purpose, confidence and a clear understanding of the community we wanted to serve.
Coaching
Helping us develop our ideas, strengthen our confidence and understand how to build a charity with purpose.Community organising
Encouraging us to listen to the community, understand local need and create support shaped by people’s real experiences.Funding support
Supporting our development through funding opportunities and helping us build the foundations needed to grow sustainably.Partnership working
Helping build strong relationships and encouraging collaboration across community, voluntary and support networks.Strategic direction
Helping us see the bigger picture and develop from a community space into a mental health and wellbeing charity.Belief
Believing in what LilyAnne’s could become and encouraging us to keep going, keep growing and keep serving our community.From coffee shop to counselling charity
What began as a coffee shop became a place where people talked openly, shared struggles, found connection and began to trust that support could be different.
Sacha helped us recognise that LilyAnne’s could respond to the deeper issues people were bringing through the door: loneliness, emotional distress, trauma, anxiety, low mood and the need for safe human connection.
With his encouragement and support, LilyAnne’s developed into the mental health counselling charity it is today, providing one-to-one counselling, listening support, peer support, coffee mornings and community wellbeing activity.
His impact
✓ Helped us grow from a community coffee shop. ✓ Supported our charity development. ✓ Encouraged our focus on mental health and wellbeing. ✓ Helped us build stronger partnerships. ✓ Supported the foundations of the charity we are today.Sacha’s lasting legacy
Compassion
Creating a charity where people are treated with dignity, kindness and respect.Community power
Believing that communities can create change when people are listened to, valued and supported.Mental health support
Helping shape a charity that now provides counselling and emotional wellbeing support for people who need it.Connection
Reducing loneliness by creating spaces where people feel they belong.Hope
Helping people believe that support, recovery and brighter days are possible.A thriving charity
His guidance helped LilyAnne’s become a stronger, more confident and more sustainable charity.A message from LilyAnne’s
Sacha will always be part of LilyAnne’s. His support, coaching and belief helped us become the charity we are today.
Through his work with Community Organisers and the Power to Change Empowering Places programme, he helped us understand the strength of community-led change and the importance of creating support that is rooted in local need.
His legacy lives on through every counselling session, every listening conversation, every coffee morning, every partnership and every person who finds hope through LilyAnne’s.
Sacha’s legacy today
Every day, Sacha’s legacy continues through the work of LilyAnne’s and through the people who access support, find connection and begin to feel less alone.
Counselling
Providing a safe, confidential space where people can talk openly about their thoughts, feelings and experiences.Listening Support
Offering compassionate early support for people who simply need someone to listen.Community Wellbeing
Bringing people together to reduce loneliness, build confidence and improve emotional wellbeing.In loving memory
“Sacha helped us believe that LilyAnne’s could become more than a place for coffee and conversation. He helped us see the charity it could become.”
We honour Sacha by continuing the work he helped shape: creating compassionate, community-rooted mental health support for people who need somewhere safe to turn.
Continue Sacha’s legacy
Every referral, every conversation and every act of kindness helps us continue the mission that Sacha helped shape.
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