MORE than £8,000 has been raised by The Hive to help fund a project aimed at building confidence and body positivity in young women.

The cash was raised at a prestigious Ladies Lunch event at Thornton Hall Hotel and was part of the youth zone's bid to raise £25,000 to support the 'Bee Yourself' project.

Bee Yourself hopes to provide the zone's members with access to; workshops looking at healthy relationships, body image and social media, female only gym and fitness sessions, specialist salon sessions to help build confidence and self-esteem, access to qualified nurses for discussion around personal health issues, mental health issues and support with medication.

It also aims to ensure the ongoing promotion of positive, aspirational female role models and positive body image to young women.

Around 200 guests attended the Ladies Lunch hosted by chairwoman of Wirral Chamber of Commerce Board and managing director of the Progress to Excellence Group, Sandra Kirkham.

Sandra told the Globe: “I was honoured to host The Hive’s very first Ladies' Lunch, a hugely successful event that gave us an opportunity to showcase the invaluable contribution The Hive makes to the Wirral community and to raise funds for Bee Yourself, a project that is set to make a positive difference to the lives of hundreds of young women.”

Andrew and Liz Collinge also spoke at the event alongside Warrington-based UK victims' commissioner Baroness Newlove.

The Hive’s chief executive Adam Mellor said: “Thanks to the generosity of everyone who attended this exceptional event and to the support of our fantastic keynote speakers, we have made a great start to The Bee Yourself fundraising campaign.

"We’re now focused on raising an additional £17,000 to reach the project’s £25,000 target and to do this we are in the process of forming a committee of ladies who are passionate about supporting disadvantaged young women in our community.

"We would welcome anyone who is interested in becoming involved with the committee to get in touch with our team.

"The Hive already provides a safe place for young women to express their feelings on whole range of issues – including bullying, healthy relationships, body image, family issues and mental health issues but we want to strengthen our offer to them even further in 2019.”

The Hive will be holding an event for new members of its ladies' committee in early 2019 and anyone who is interested in finding out more about the committee can email tom.woolley@thehiveyouthzone.org