The Mayor of Harrow announced his chosen charity today, saying he wants to make sure money raised goes directly to helping people.

Councillor Nizam Ismail, who began his year as mayor of the borough last month, announced this morning that his chosen charity for the year would be Age UK Harrow.

He said: “I am proud to support this charity which does so much for the elderly in Harrow.

“What they do is so important and as we are all getting older so I want to do my bit to promote their work.”

Chief executive of Age UK Harrow, Avani Modasia said: “We were absolutely delighted when we found out the Mayor had picked us as his chosen charity."

She also said there are more than 34,000 elderly people, aged 65 and above living in the Borough and last year the charity managed to help 13,000.

She said: “Hopefully with the mayors help we will be able to reach 15,0000 people who need our help most over the coming year.”

Mayor Ismail said: “One of the main reasons I chose Age UK Harrow was because they are a small charity who do their work locally, and I wanted to make sure that any money we’re able to raise will go straight to front line services.”

The charity has more than 120 volunteers who help elderly people around the borough including help change a light bulb, help buy shopping, organise days out and support those who are living alone.

Age UK does not receive money from a national level and relies on volunteers and fundraising on a local level.