Relate Cambridge
Home-Start – eBay selling I don’t know about you, but one thing that has been bothering me over the last few weeks is just how much stuff I seem to have lying around my house. Everywhere I turn there are cupboards full of things I never use, touch or even look at. Does that sound familiar? Normally I have a little pile of things I no longer want sitting in the cupboard under the stairs; every so often, I bundle the pile and the children into the car and drop everything off at the charity shop. As long as I remember to collect the children from the toy corner before I leave again, it’s a pretty seamless process. Of course, all the charity shops have been closed during the lockdown, and my pile of unwanted things has now become a fairly serious problem. And yours has too? Well… There is a solution: eBay! eBay for Charities is the fundraising arm of the international selling site, and there a couple of ways to support your favourite good cause while using the service. You could become an eBay seller on behalf of a charity. This is where your piles of unwanted items come in. Why not sort out your items, photograph them, and pop them on eBay? It’s very easy, if you’ve never done it before. Right at the bottom of the page, once you’ve put in all the details about your item, is a little box inviting you to “donate a portion to charity.” After you’ve ticked the box, you can decide which charity should receive the donation and how much you want them to receive, and eBay does the rest. If you want to know more about selling on eBay and donating to charity, check out their guide pages: https://charity.ebay.co.uk/ Or, if you’re buying on eBay, you can choose to support a charity while purchasing other items: simply set up your chosen charity in your eBay account, and then, whenever you make a purchase on eBay, you have the chance to include a donation to your charity. Simples! So, the next time you look at your brimming cupboards in despair, look again: maybe this is your chance to de-clutter your space and support HomeStart, all from the comfort of your computer.
New statistics show East of England’s lockdown ‘relationship realisations’ New research released by Relate, the leading relationships charity, paints a divided picture of relationships in the East of England and the rest of the UK as lockdown is eased. Across couple, family and social relationships, people have had a range of ‘relationship realisations’. A heartwarming 60% of respondents in the East of England said that lockdown has made them realise relationships are the most important thing in their lives and more than a third (36%) of respondents in the region who have parents feel emotionally closer to them. Sadly, just under a quarter (23%) of respondents living in the East of England who have a partner have struggled to support them emotionally during this time and 7% noted that lockdown has made them realise they need to break-up, divorce or separate. 60% of respondents in the East of England said that lockdown has made them realise relationships are the most important thing in their lives The poll of 2,058 UK adults found that more than half (57%) of respondents in the East of England said their relationships with loved ones have helped them get through lockdown. As Relate launches its first ever Relationships Week (20–26 July), Relate Cambridge is asking people to share their #RelationshipRocks via social media – with a picture or video and a short message about how someone has been a ‘rock’ to them lately. Claire Godward, Centre Director at Relate Cambridge said: “Most of us can’t remember a sustained period of pressure on every aspect of life on such a scale. Relationships are central to health and wellbeing and we want to raise awareness of their power to protect and sustain us in the worst of times. Relationships are now in the spotlight more than ever, so we want to grasp this opportunity to encourage everyone to talk about them more openly – the good, the bad and the ugly. That’s why today marks the start of our first-ever Relationships Week and we’re calling on people in Cambridgeshire to join in the conversation.” Make or break time for couples When it came to couple relationships, almost a quarter (23%) of people in the East of England who have a partner said they have struggled to support their partner emotionally during lockdown. Just over one-in-seven in the region (15%) were anxious about how their relationship with their partner will change when lockdown ends. 6% of respondents in a relationship said lockdown has made them realise they want to propose to their partner, while 7% came to the conclusion during lockdown that they need to end their relationship. continued on page 14 melbournmagazine@gmail.com
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