The 13,000 staff and volunteers working in Cancer Research UK’s shop division are being offered free wellbeing support through a new partnership with the retail staff welfare charity the Retail Trust.

The organisations said staff and volunteers at CRUK shops would be able to access personalised wellbeing support from the trust, including counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy.

They can contact a network of qualified counsellors and book sessions either face to face or over the phone.

Staff and volunteers can also access support for their children, with the Retail Trust offering up to six free sessions of counselling for children aged five to 15, plus access to an online community.

Through the partnership, which launched this summer, staff and volunteers will also benefit from exclusive discounts and rewards that aim to improve employee wellbeing.

CRUK has more than 550 charity shops, employing about 2,000 shop workers and 11,000 volunteers in total.

Neither organisation was able to tell Third Sector about any cost involved in the partnership.

More than 200 organisations have worked with the Retail Trust to access staff support, including retailers such as WHSmith and Lakeland.

The Retail Trust has also worked with several other major UK charities, including Oxfam and the British Heart Foundation.

Julie Byard, director of trading at CRUK, said: “The wellbeing and health of our dedicated volunteers and shop colleagues is of the utmost importance to us and we are always thinking of ways to make CRUK a better place to volunteer and work.

“With so many people choosing to dedicate their time to our charity because of a close connection to cancer, we recognised the value of working with the Retail Trust to provide wellbeing support to all our volunteers and colleagues.

"We can’t wait to see the positive impact this is going to have across our charity shops.”

Chris Brook-Carter, chief executive of the Retail Trust, said: “We help thousands of retail workers across the country look after their physical, mental and financial health and it’s fantastic to extend this support to Cancer Research UK’s brilliant team of volunteers and staff thanks to our latest partnership.”