Several businesses in St Albans have signed up for a discount scheme to raise money for a suicide prevention charity.

The OLLIE (One Life Lost Is Enough) Foundation, which works to prevent suicide among young people, has created the OLLIE card to enable customers to get discounts in shops, restaurants and hotels.

The scheme was devised by a group of pupils at Verulam School, led by school governor John Action, as part of the Dragons Apprentice initiative, raising more than £3,000 for the charity.

John said: “The OLLIE Foundation is a very important charity and, as a father of teenagers myself, I wanted to ensure that every child or parent is given the right support to prevent the tragedy of young people self harming or ending their lives.

“We came up with the idea of OLLIE cards, whereby the residents in St Albans pay just £20 for a card and they can use it to get discounts in a wide variety of shops, restaurants, pubs and hotels throughout the city.”

Restaurants and pubs taking part include Per Tutti restaurant, Nonno’s Pizza, The Crown, The Jolly Sailor, Abigail’s Tea Rooms, St Michael’s Manor and The Rose and Crown pub.

Business network group Platinum Point chose the OLLIE Foundation as their charity of the year, and group member Jeremy Banks signed businesses up for the scheme.

He said: “The support of local businesses has been fantastic and we hope that more business owners in the retail and hospitality sectors will see the benefits to them by supporting this great cause.

“It’s a total win-win, whereby the businesses get more custom and card holders get a good discount on what they spend, while the OLLIE Foundation has been given a donation of £20 per card.”

The scheme also has the support of Morrisons in Hatfield Road, and customers will be able to buy the OLLIE card from Platinum Point members in-store on Friday, March 15, Saturday, March 16 and Monday, April 13.

St Michael’s Manor manager Richard Marrett said: “We strongly believe that, with the support of local businesses and residents of St Albans, OLLIE will continue to grow as a charity to further their reach and achieve their long term goals.”