“Lives will be lost because of this,” was just one of the many comments expressed on social media in response to the news that the LGBT mental health charity PACE had closed its doors at the end of January.
Staffat the charity, who were informed of the closure only a week earlier, were as shocked and angry as the clients they served at the sudden nature of the announcement. A former staff member, Tim Eastwood, told me he and other staff, counsellors and psychotherapists wished they’d been told sooner so that they could have campaigned to raise funds. If their fundraising efforts didn’t prove sufficient, he said, “at least we could have worked towards a better ending with our clients”.