A PACKED crowd of skaters and fans gathered at the Oxford Roller Derby to raise thousands of pounds for a mental health charity this weekend.

The ‘charity scrim’ women's-only and mixed matches at the Leys Pool and Leisure centre in Blackbird Leys on Sunday were held in a bid to raise money for charity Mind.

Skaters and their supporters raised £2,000 for the charity, which advises and supports people suffering from a wide range of mental health problems.

Head of admin at the roller derby Carol Mcleish, 29, was one of the skaters taking part.

The avid skater, who competes by the name of ‘Stormy’, said that the charity’s work was close to the hearts and minds of the Oxford skating community.

She said: “We held the event because we wanted to support Mind, because they do amazing work.

“The turnout was really good. It was split into four teams and there were 80 skaters and around 70 people who turned up just to spectate and support the event.”

Although the exact total amount raised has not yet been totted up she estimates that the charity bid had raised at least £2,000, well above the initial target of £1,000.

She said: “It was much more than we expected so we were just absolutely over the moon.

“This is the first time we have done the event just for Mind. It went really well I think.

“It is such an important charity. Mental health can affect anybody at any time so everybody needs to be more aware and to just make it less of a taboo than it already is.”

Roller derby is a full-contact sport played on roller skates, by players skating around an oval track.

Oxford Roller Derby was founded in 2010 and played its first official match the following year. It is an all-woman team that plays at the Blackbird Leys centre.

Ticket sales, a cake stall and a raffle all helped to raise the charity total for the match with advance tickets priced £7 selling out even before the kick-off.

There was plenty of support and good will from fans and players following the match.

Fan Chris Daniels said on Facebook: "Totally best mixed scrim I've been in. Was fantastic. Thanks for having me."

Diane Wood said: "Thanks ORD for an amazing day. Hope you raised loads of money."

Claire Dargavel added: "Thank you for organising today guys, I have loads of fun."

The roller derby club said that although they were keen to host another charity event they did not have the next date set.

A JustGiving page has also been set up to take any further donations which will go towards Mind and can be accessed by visiting the JustGiving website and searching for: Oxford-Roller-Derby.

The game consists of a series of two-minute 'jams' where one team tries to skate past another team, whose goal is to 'jam' the others and prevent them from passing.