Panto success boosts Spa Centre and charity

Snow White, this year's panto at the Royal Spa Centre, Leamington, has given an extraordinary boost to the centre and the charity that it supports.

Box office sales for the panto which finished its run on January 5, broke the £400,000 mark for the first time, an increase of nearly 30 per cent on the previous year. Most of the shows were sold out, and the audiences included more than 7,000 school pupils.

In addition, Leamington-based Helping Hands, the charity supported by the panto, raised just over £9,700 from audience donations. The charity runs a number of projects to help local people in need, including support sessions and a soup kitchen serving hundreds of meals every month to those who may otherwise go without a hot meal.

Alice Webber, operations manager for Helping Hands, said: "We want to say a huge thank-you to everyone at the Spa Centre for allowing us to build on our work across the local area, giving a hand up and not just a hand out to people and families who are struggling to make ends meet."