A NEWPORT charity that helps residents with education, skills and employment has issued ‘heartfelt thanks’ to Gocompare.com for raising £15,000.

Duffryn Community Link trustee, Dawn Elliot, accepted a cheque on behalf of the organisation from Gocompare.com founder and chief executive Hayley Parsons at a presentation at the Family Forest Centre in Duffryn Infant and Junior School on Monday.

The cash was raised by staff at Gocompare.com holding several fundraising events from a carwash to a bake-off, raising £4,000.

But its main fundraiser was an It’s a Knockout challenge at Tredegar House in September.

Seventeen teams from businesses in Newport and the surrounding area took part in the challenge, including Acorn Recruitment, Tata Steel, ONS, The Dragonfly pub along with the National Trust and Gocompare – which entered two teams.

Bob Barry, who is a joint learning coordinator with Jane Lewis at Duffryn Community Link, said: “On behalf of our organisation I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to Gocompare.com for all they have done for us.”

“They (the staff) are kind and altruistic people to whom we will be eternally grateful. Our intention is that the much-needed funding will be used for the benefit of the community, including older person’s activities and for children and young people.

“This will make a real difference to the community and we are delighted by the support shown by Gocompare.com.”

Mr Barry also paid tribute to the dedicated team of workers within the organisation and to manager Karen Williams.

Kath Chadwick, PR manager at Gocompare.com, said: “We were blown away by the support from the business community. We are proud to have put on the event and to be able to present Duffryn Community Links with a cheque for £15,000.”