A CROWDFUNDER campaign to help get StopTopps into colleges and universities across the South West has been launched by StopTopps and the Aviva Community Fund.

StopTopps are versatile drink-protectors that have been designed to deter drink-spiking.

There’s the choice of reusable plastic lids, suitable for most glasses commonly found in pubs and clubs, or single-use sticky-foil tops that suit cans, bottles and smaller glasses.

The plastic lids fit snugly over most commercial pub/club glasses and the foils have food grade glue on the underside so they stick securely on the top of a bottle or can – both are designed to deter any opportunistic spiker from slipping anything in your drink without your knowledge.

Dawn Dines, CEO and founder at StopTopps said: “Drink spiking is unacceptable. Rape, robbery and even death are reported outcomes. We want to stamp out drink spiking across the South West.

"With your help, our goal is to raise up to £5000 so we can send StopTopps to colleges and universities across the South West. By getting StopTopps to students and young people we hope to dramatically reduce the cases of drink spiking in our region.

"If you can donate £1 or £100 – every penny counts and will potentially stop a young person you know having their drink spiked. "Donate now at: https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/stoptopps”.

Jude Brooks, UK Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Aviva, said: “We know that even the smallest charities can have a massive impact in building stronger communities.

"The ambition of the Aviva Community Fund is ‘Teach a man to fish’ rather than ‘Give a man a fish’.

"By focussing on training and coaching from Aviva’s people, as well as enabling fundraising we hope to help causes become more self-sustaining.

"We are extremely proud to support StopTopps and look forward to enabling them to bring ideas to life. By caring more about our community today we can all create a better future tomorrow, so we hope the local community feels inspired to support their crowdfunding campaign too.”

Drink spiking is a hugely under-reported problem that affects people the world over. It’s impossible to get exact statistics for drink-spiking.

Most cases aren’t even reported to the police, but it is increasing year-by-year according to UK police forces.

The results, from a series of Freedom of Information requests, show a 108 per cent increase since 2015 in the number of reports to police forces, which include both the words "drink" and "spiking" or "lacing".

Dawn first pitched the idea of anti-drink-spiking lids on the BBC series Dragon’s Den.