Charity offers more support to fishing communities

Hayley Hamlett, from the Fishermen's Mission, has been visiting the Channel Islands

A charity has started a new programme to help fishing communities in the Channel Islands.

The Fishermen’s Mission has partnered with Citizen’s Advice Guernsey and Jersey to make financial support more accessible.

Many in the community have found it hard to attend set appointments because they need to be out at sea when the weather is good.

The charity has started helping fishermen who work 12 hour days to get their referrals completed.

'Support is out there'

Hayley Hamlett, mission area officer at The Fishermen's Mission, said: “We understand the difficulty of not being able to go and queue up so that’s why we started working with the partner organisations."

The work started in the last few months and the Fishermen’s Mission has been to the islands to remind people about the support available.

It has also been working with fishing communities to show how it can help retired fishermen and their families.

Former fishermen Joe Lewis listened to a presentation from the Fishermen's Mission

Joe Lewis, who is a retired Jersey fishermen, went to a presentation from the Fishermen’s Mission to see what support is available.

He said sharing this message is important because fishermen can be “the last people to admit that they need help in all honesty”.

Mr Lewis added: “It means a lot to me personally to know that support is out there and it can also help my close friends as well”.