Christmas has come early for a Haggerston brain injury charity after it was given £15,000 to continue a popular kitchen project.

The grant will allow Headway East London to expand its lunch club, which sees service users preparing dishes for 40 people a day, as well as its fundraising supper clubs, in which they serve three-course dinners to guests. Bosses want to support 50 more people to take part in the programme next year so the money from The Merchant Taylor’s Company was much-needed .

One member, Daniel, was particularly pleased. He was a silver service waiter before suffering a brain injury in a violent assault back in 1990, aged just 37.

“I used to get a buzz out of it,” he said. “I didn’t look at it as a job, even though I got paid. I just enjoyed doing it. And it’s the same here. It gives me that buzz. I know I can’t go back to working in a hotel or a restaurant, but I can help people out doing it here.”

Headway CEO Anthony Bonfil said: “We’ve come a long way in the past few years, and as we look to top off our 20th birthday celebrations next spring we want to utilise the talents of our membership more than ever by expanding and developing our creative projects, including the kitchen.

“We couldn’t do this without the generosity of our supporters, and in this particular case from the substantial grant from The Merchant Taylor’s Company, for which we are extremely grateful”.

The next supper club is on February 7. To buy tickets, click here.