Record amount raised at 20th Mossley SOUP event

On a chilly Mossley night, 180 neighbours queued up the stone steps of Emmaus with nothing more than a fiver and a rumbling stomach, yet they left having quietly changed a corner of their town. Teenager Thea Smith-Heeley, blazer still creased from a day at Hollins, told the room how her school needed a calm space where anxious pupils could breathe. By the time the last ladle of soup was scraped, every penny of the £2,187 raised was heading straight to that Wellbeing Room.

It was the 20th time the community had stirred itself into action this way, and the kitty had never swelled so large. Thea's pitch edged out the 1st Mossley Scouts' camp-kit wish list, Thompson Cross Community Kitchen's recipe for free hot meals, and the Trumpet Choir's plan to lift spirits on the wards. Each of those runners-up still walked away smiling, clutching a surprise £100 cheque from Premier Kia, the garage that put its name to the night.

Fifteen local businesses and home bakers filled the raffle table and soup pots without charging a bean. Mossley Town Council slipped £250 into the kitty, Emmaus matched it, and the hall's fairy lights stayed on just that bit longer. No one kept a tally of how many times someone said, 'See you next time,' but the diary is already pencilled for 19 February 2026, and the organisers are hungry for fresh ideas.