Eight charities in East Anglia have shared a £10,000 windfall thanks to Norwich-based financial advisers Almary Green.

The Almary Green Awards were established in 2011 to celebrate the firm's 10th anniversary and a £10,000 fund has been offered each year since then.

Carl Lamb, managing director of Almary Green, which is now part of the Smith and Pinching Group, presented the cheques at a reception held at the group's Aylsham Road offices.

Mr Lamb said 'Listening to the representatives of these charities talking about what they have achieved is humbling. There are dozens of amazing volunteers giving up their valuable time to help these good causes: by supporting them with the money they need to deliver the services they provide, we are helping them to help others.'

The eight charities, nominated by the public, are Motor Neurone Disease Association (£900), the Norfolk Reading Project (£968.31), Norfolk Deaf Association (£1,036), Toms Trust (£1,240), Time Norfolk (£1,414), The Hamlet (£1,440), 2nd Reepham Scout Group (£1,600) and Age UK Norwich (£1,680).

What will the money be spent on?

Age UK Norwich will buy an electric hoist for use at the Marion Day Care Centre in Norwich.

Fundraising manager Emma Roper thanked Mr Lamb and said: 'This award will support our Marion Day Centre, helping us to care for people living with dementia in a safe and dignified manner and enriching the lives of older people in Norwich.'

The Hamlet charity received an award to help support children with severe disabilities. The charity will use the grant to contribute to its work using Eye-Gaze technology, giving children, young people and adults another way of communicating choices and feelings. The cheque was accepted by Emily Lown, children's services manager and Lorraine Ewing, adult services manager.

Ms Ewing said 'The award will be used to provide a number of sessions over the year with an Eye-Gaze specialist to enable us to use this equipment to its full potential. The sessions are an opportunity to provide individual assessments and support to access the Eye-Gaze system.'

The Norfolk Reading Project provides materials and support to teachers to improve literacy in schools. Anne Thorley, chairman of the charity, said: 'The Norfolk Reading Project is thrilled to receive this award from Almary Green. We are a small local charity working to raise literacy standards in Norfolk both in and out of schools. This award has enabled us to upgrade our resources to support more children in underprivileged communities.'

TimeNorfolk received an award for the second year in a row to help it in its work to support families who have suffered with miscarriage, termination or stillbirth.

Director Lesley Bradfield said: 'TimeNorfolk are really grateful to Almary Green for our funding: this will enable us to update our resources for existing practitioners and future trainees. Demand is growing for our services therefore we need to ensure our skilled volunteers have access to the most up to date literature and information. This investment will directly benefit bereaved parents that come to TimeNorfolk.'

Also receiving an award for a second time, Cambridge-based Tom's Trust received a grant to help with work to support young people with brain tumours.

Charity founder Andrew Whitely received the cheque on behalf of the trust he set up following the death of his son.

'Tom's Trust provides innovative and pioneering clinical psychology for children diagnosed with a brain tumour, from diagnosis, throughout treatment and beyond, helping children to cope and allowing them to reach their full potential', he said.

'The Almary Green Award will help to pay for two children's clinical psychology support for a year and help to secure our work in Cambridge and give us the opportunity to put our efforts into development and growth.'

A grant was also awarded to the King's Lynn branch of the Motor Neurone Disease Association to fund meetings with individuals and families who live with MND.

The cheque was received by Janet Walker on behalf of the charity who said: 'The money will be used to enable us to continue running a support group for people with MND and their carers which we set up earlier this year in the King's Lynn area.'

She added: 'The support meetings help families to share their experience with other people who really understand their problems and can offer emotional and practical help.'

The 2nd Reepham Scout Group received an award to enable them to enhance the outdoor facilities at their scout hut site to enable visiting scout groups and other youth groups to camp there.

The cheque was accepted by the group's chairman Robert Briggs and scout leader Mark Frary who reported their ambition to hold up to 15 fifteen camps per year at the Reepham site once the facilities have been upgraded.