BRAIN injury charity Headway is planning an extra special Christmas party for its members in Swindon after winning more than £2,000 from a supermarket token scheme.

Staff at the organisation were stunned when they discovered that, thanks to Tesco shoppers, they had won all the money they asked for.

Service development manager Sonia de Blaquiere said: “Because we’re a charity we rely on raising money for additional services for the clients and we thought this year it would be really nice to give them a good Christmas party.”

Although the organisation has run parties in the past, this time they wanted to make a special affair with a touch of luxury.

They applied £2,274 from for the chain’s Bags of Help scheme, where shoppers vote for good causes using tokens, but didn’t expect to win everything they had asked for.

Headway, based at the Dorcan Complex, deals with almost 100 clients a week, providing cognitive rehabilitation therapy to people who have suffered brain trauma.

“A lot of people that come here live off benefits and some of them do not have family. Christmas is a really difficult time for people in that situation. We thought it would be nice for them to have something to look forward to.

“Winning the money is great because we can put on a nice Christmas party for everyone and people are excited about that.”

But Sonia added: “It also raises awareness of the service, which is really important.”

Alec Brown, head of community at Tesco, said: “Bags of Help has been a fantastic success and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response from customers. It’s such a special scheme because it’s local people who decide how the money will be spent in the community.”

Run in partnership with environmental charity Groundwork, it was launched two years ago and has so far give more than £40m to more than 9,700 community projects up and down the country.

Voting ran in all Tesco’s Swindon stores through September and October, with shoppers being given a choice of three projects.

Groundwork chief executive Graham Duxbury said: “The diversity of projects that are being funded shows that local communities have a passion to create something great in their area. We are pleased to be able to be part of the journey and provide support and encouragement to help local communities thrive.”

Charities and local groups looking for help to fund projects can visit tesco.com/bagsofhelp for more information.

Shoppers have the opportunity to vote for three different projects each time they shop and every other month when the votes are collected three groups in each of Tesco’s regions are awarded funding.

Headway uses mental exercises, education and activities to help people re-learn cognitive skills that many take for granted. It also provides help with speech and language and organises groups for reading, cooking art therapy and conversation.

It can be reached online at headwayswindon.org.uk