Women's Aid Northern Ireland Christmas boost after losing nearly £150k of funding

Christmas has come early for one local charity after losing nearly £150,000 of funding.

Artist Sara O'Neill has designed a series of cards, which will be landing on doorsteps this festive season, in order to help raise funds for Women's Aid Federation.

And an Oscar-winning actor is among the many people to parcel up the Belfast-inspired cards...

Last year, Sara raised almost £5,000 for the charity and this year she's hoping to raise even more with her Millie cards after the organisation lost its only government funding.

Her cards are inspired by the strong women of Northern Ireland.

Sara said: "Although in Irish stories, we have all these amazing strong characters, I feel that as a country across the island we haven't always treated women as they should be, and I sort of wanted to just play my part in that to try and fix that."

Actor Seamus O'Hara, one of the stars of An Irish Goodbye, was on hand to help pack the cards.

Sara and Seamus worked together earlier this year- when the team behind the Oscar-winning movie wore her designs to the ceremony, before they were auctioned off for the charity.

He said: "It was through that collaboration that Sara had started talking to me about the work that she does with Women's Aid NI and just how dire things were in terms of funding."

This year's cards have raised £9,000 in just three days and sights are already set on next year's run.

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know.