AN application for lottery funding by an innovative storytelling group from Bury has had a happy ending!

Lollo Bal, run by clinical hypnotherapist and lead storyteller Richard O'Neill, has scooped £10,000 in the Lottery's Awards for All programme, and will help pay for a traditional Romani wagon.

The group undertakes storytelling sessions at schools, festivals and other events using Romani stories to touch on themes that everybody can relate to, improving cultural understanding.

The grant will pay the bulk of the £13,500 costs of buying and fitting out a vardo, a traditional horse-drawn wagon, which will be used as part of the group's storytelling ventures around the country.

Richard (44), who also works as a consultant to companies as well as providing motivational services to soccer clubs, said " We want to bring storytelling to as many people as possible. It is a way to break down barriers and educate and inform them.

"You can cover all kinds of themes in stories that everybody can relate to, stressing the commonalities between people rather than differences. We will invite people inside the vardo to see how Romanis used to live. However, the wagon won't be horse-drawn. This would be impracticable, so it will sit on a trailer."

Richard says that many of the children involved in the storytelling sessions are "disadvantaged" and "disaffected" and that the benefits for the youngsters include teaching them confidence skills and allowing them to better express themselves.

In high schools, one of the themes of the stories relates to bullying.

The businessman, who in 1996 launched National Men's Health Week, added: "Myself and a couple of colleagues launched Lollo Bal 12 months ago and we operate around the country."