Former England footballer opens new base for west Cumbrian charity

Former England footballer Michael Owen has been in west Cumbria to open Allerdale Disability Association's new headquarters.

The ex-Liverpool and Real Madrid striker, who scored 40 goals in 89 internationals between 1998 and 2008, carried out the official opening at Moorclose Community Centre in Workington on Thursday 13 July.

The charity has helped nearly a thousand disabled people of all ages access more than £10m of funding in the last 12 months alone.

"This is a really important charity up in this part of the world so I'm delighted to be here, delighted to cut the ribbon and see so many faces," said Owen.

As well as supporting people in applying for funding they're entitled to, Allerdale Disability Association runs a drop-in centre to help tackle social isolation.

John Brown, chairman of the charity's executive committee, believes the new facility will make a big difference.

"There's more room to do the things that we want to do and one of the things that we will be doing now we've moved in is extending the facilities," he said.

"At the moment we only offer drop-ins on three days a week, we're hoping to get more volunteers to assist us and then we can move it to five days a week so people can come in any day of the week they want to."