Manx Lottery Trust has provided funding of £25,000 to support Motiv8 Addiction Services as demand continues to grow for its services.

Last year hundreds attended its group sessions and there was a total of 3,359 counselling sessions this year.

To accommodate the growing number of clients and create more space for the sessions, the organisation has moved to premises in Woodbourne Road, Douglas, from Mount Havelock.

The charity now has a dedicated children and young persons’ room, a groupwork stand-alone suite and eight counselling rooms.

Motiv8 also helps parents, people with mental health problems and clients with drug and drink addictions in both groups and one-to-one counselling.

The facility has more than doubled Motiv8 Addiction Services’ capacity and service users can benefit from an improvement to both the counselling environment and interventions offered.

Motiv8 now has links with the local Narcotics Anonymous and Cocaine Anonymous groups.

Motiv8’s addiction aervices chief executive Thea Ozenturk said: ’Now more than ever people in our community are struggling with various addictions and we know that early support and intervention has a better long-term outcome, which is why this move is so important.

’Our new premises will help us meet the demand in our community and the kind support from Manx Lottery Trust has made the building fit for purpose.

’We’re particularly pleased to be able to offer an improved counselling service. Having doubled our counselling space, we are much better placed to respond to crises and maintain counselling for those already in treatment.’

Manx Lottery Trust chairman Sarah Kelly added: ’It’s astounding how many people in our community are affected by addiction, which is why it’s so important that we have a well-equipped organisation which can offer effective and appropriate support. The new premises will really make a difference to this charity and the service users who rely on it, which is why we’re so pleased to fund this project.’