MORE than 100 people took part in a Yogathon on Shenfield Common during the weekend, to help raise aid for a Brentwood mental health charity.

The annual Yogathon, which is in its third year running, saw yogis from across Essex join forces to complete 108 sun salutations - a kind of Yoga routine - to raise funds for Brentwood Mind, which doesn't receive funding from the charity.

Jessica Livingstone, event organiser and founder of Brentwood based Wellbeing Yoga, said: "We are putting mental health on the map.

"Yogis act with non judgement and so are at the forefront of transforming the world’s view of mental health.”

A Mind spokesman gave thanks to the yogis, while emphasising the need for generosity to continued its mental health work, which takes a strain off the NHS.

he said:“We’re very grateful to Wellbeing Yoga for choosing to fundraise for Brentwood Mind.

"There are over 140 local Minds in our network and each is unique, operating as an independent charity to provide a range of high-quality services tailored to the specific needs of the local community, as well as campaigning on local mental health issues and helping to break down the stigma around mental health.

"To do this, each local Mind relies not just on grants and income from the services they provide on behalf of the NHS and other services, but also the generosity of local people passionate about improving mental health support in their community.”

Paula Mayura, who runs Southend based yoga group Mayura Studios, who were also in attendance, said: “It’s a lovely charity to do something for and we had a contingent of about 10 people here.”