A cup of hope
Christmas can be a lonely time for some, but Trevor Sherwood’s unique, National Lotterysupported coffee bar offers a haven for those who find the festive season tough
THIS Christmas Eve, cafe owner Trevor Sherwood is looking forward to welcoming one person in particular through his doors. After all, she is only able to enjoy the festivities because the team at LilyAnne’s Coffee Bar helped turn her life around when she dropped in by chance on December 24, 2021.
The Hartlepool cafe is a venture like no other. It not only serves reviving lattes and warming afternoon teas to paying customers, but also offers a space for people suffering isolation or facing difficulties to come for a hot drink, company and a chat with trained support staff.
“The most demanding time for us is Christmas week,” says Trevor, 34, who has been running LilyAnne’s with his sister Angela for the past five years. “I think it’s because, for some people, all the celebrations bring into focus how isolated they feel.
“Last year on Christmas Eve we had six people walk through the door who had reached a crisis point in their lives.”
One of those people had no idea the cafe offered extra help to its customers. “She was crying, so a team member simply asked how her coffee was. It let us strike up a conversation,” Trevor explains.
It transpired the woman was suicidal – she was on antidepressants but her prescription hadn’t been reviewed for years, which had triggered a mental-health crisis.
“We got her seen by doctors that day, which helped her get back on track,” says Trevor. “Now she has joined our support group and helps others, giving advice.”
The lady is far from alone in having benefited from LilyAnne’s services over the past year. “Since January we’ve supported around a thousand people who have come in not because they wanted a coffee, but because they needed someone to talk to,” says Trevor. “We look and feel like a normal coffee shop, not like a doctor’s surgery or a stereotypical mentalhealth service, which means it isn’t so intimidating. People don’t worry about being judged – we’re just here serving coffee.”
The cafe’s success is all down to the siblings’ hard work, but they couldn’t have done it without help from The National Lottery. And it’s thanks to National Lottery players that thousands of good causes across the UK like LilyAnne’s Coffee Bar are able to bring people together and offer them life-changing support, not just at Christmas but all through the year.
“We’ve had three years of funding and it has been phenomenal,” says Trevor. “It has enabled us to start developing the project and get the word out there.
“We were able to launch a suicide prevention campaign in Hartlepool where we put little positive quotes and QR codes in the football stadium and around the town, and if people are feeling distressed or upset, they can scan the codes and it brings them to our support network. It’s been a huge success.”
We look like a coffee shop, not a mentalhealth service