Donations have already started pouring in to help make life easier for two special little boys.
In Thursday’s Spalding Guardian we launched a new Children’s Fund appeal to raise £4,000 for disabled brothers Ben and Toby Smith.
The money is desperately needed by Ben and Toby’s family to buy and fit a walk-in bath.
Ben and Toby, who are eight and five and attend Spalding’s Garth School, have never had a definitive diagnosis for their various health problems, but both suffer from global development delay, which means they are still in nappies and can’t walk or talk.
Mum Julia, dad Darren and their big sister Molly, of Pennygate, Spalding, work hard to meet the day-to-day needs of the two little boys.
But as they get bigger Julia is struggling to lift them into the family’s normal bath and would love a walk-in one which wouldbe suitable for Ben and Toby but still enable the rest of the family to enjoy a relaxing bathtime.
Within hours of the appeal being launched on Thursday, generous readers had started digging deep into their pockets to bring Julia’s dream a step closer to reality.
We have kicked the appeal off with a £1,000 donation from the Lincolnshire Free Press Children’s Fund – a charitable fund set up to help children in need in your circulation area.
And anything you can give will make a huge difference.
Donation so far have ranged from a £5 note to a cheque for £50 – every little really does help.
Julia said: “I cannot believe how generous people are – to give their own money to help other people..
“We have our own house and Darren works really hard to pay the mortgage and the bills.
“We have always said we want to pay our own way and support our children, who we chose to bring into this world, but it is so difficult to have enough money for the extras.
“Our life is never going to be easy but it is things like a walk-in bath that make it a little bit easier and really help us.”