THE legacy of 2012 lives on as Dorset is awarded more than £300,000 in health and wellbeing funds.

Dorset County Council’s ‘Inspired by 2012′ Health and Wellbeing Legacy Fund has awarded just over £306,000 to 25 community health and wellbeing projects across Dorset.

Some of the recipients of the funding are Chesil Sailability who received £7,350, Cowden Care Farm, who run across West Dorset, Weymouth and Portland received £10,000 and the Chesil Sailing Trust also received £10,000.

Headway Dorset also received £8,800, while Weymouth and Portland Borough Council got a share of £10,416 awarded jointly to the authority and those in North Dorset and Poole.

Dorset Sports and Wellbeing Festival received £20,000, as the county council looks to build on the legacy of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Chairman of the funding panel, Dorset County Council Joint Commissioning Manager, Christopher Scally said: "It’s great news that we are now able to provide grant funding that will help remind people of the superb 2012 Olympics and hopefully inspire them to get out there and do something.

“At the first panel meeting we considered a wide variety of applications showing that there's a lot of organisations in Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole that contribute to the health of our residents in all sorts of ways. This time we managed to fund 25 of them and we are looking to fund more projects in 2015, to learn from all of them and then to use what we've learnt to inform future investments."

Headway Dorset said they will use the funding to run three brain injury carers’ groups across the county.

Chief Executive Sue Mottram said: "Research has shown that the better family members and carers are able to cope with the situation, the better the individual with acquired brain injury will recover.

“The fund will enable both intensive intervention for carers in need of support and the development of wider social support networks that do not currently exist."

There will be two more rounds of funding applications being accepted, one in December – January and one from June – July. To apply visit dorsetforyou/legacyfund or by calling Dave Franks on 01305 224855 or Chris Skinner on 01305 228580.