Young mum praises help from charity
STUART PIKE
AYOUNG mum has spoken of how she and her partner have been helped by a charity’s Teenage Family Service.
Ten years ago M3 Project set up the service and this year the 100th mother and baby were provided with supported accommodation.
The project, which operates across East Lancashire, has had many success stories, including Anna Almond, from Church, who was just 16 and pregnant when she contacted M3.
She said: “I am very proud and I didn’t want to ask for help, I didn’t want charity because I have always earned my way, but I needed help.
“I couldn’t stay living with my dad because there was no room for me - contacting M3 was the best thing I could have done for me and for my children.”
M3 arranged for Anna and her partner Josh Jackson to move into a twobedroom flat, which was ideal for the couple, Theresa, now three, and Athena, two, but when she was expecting their brother Cain, now 20 months, she needed a larger property.
Anna said being on the project gave her the confidence to then source her own accommodation, initially in Accrington town centre and now the family have settled in a threebedroom end terrace.
She said: “Without M3’s help when I was 16 and pregnant, I wouldn’t have known what I was doing. I don’t know where I would be have ended up, but it would have been a bad place.
“I am now living across from my sister-in-law and we have been able to help each other through the lockdown and be there for each other. M3 has made me more confident and able to sort things for myself.”
Josh, 23, is hoping to start a woodworking course in September, and Anna will be 21 next month. They are planning to get married in the next three years.
Anna’s advice for teenage families who find themselves in a difficult situation is to contact M3 Project, which is based in Rossendale.
She said: “Don’t think too much into it, help is out there.”
The service provides accommodation and an intensive support package for young women who are pregnant or have a baby and are living in temporary, unsuitable or overcrowded accommodation.
To find out more about the charity visit www.rossendalem3.org/