The National Lottery Community Fund has confirmed that it will award a grant worth £500,000 over 5 years to Mermaids, the wonderful charity that supports children, teenagers and their families. There was a two-month review into the funding because of malicious and inaccurate allegations made against Mermaids. It is no surprise that the review discovered that the allegations against Mermaids were baseless. Graham Linehan, who wrote the 'Father Ted' sit-com started a thread on Mumsnet urging users to contact the Lottery Fund and oppose the grant.

There were seven allegations, but the review demonstrated that these were unfounded and there were no grounds to withhold the grant. Consequently, Mermaids will be able to continue to develop their badly needed support groups across the country, increase training resource and delivery, and provide research evidence to add to the knowledge and understanding of transgender children and young people.