Community helps rural charity 'battered' by storm

A charity that helps disabled people through horticulture and rural activities has thanked the local community for getting it back on its feet after it was "battered" by Storm Goretti.

The storm, which lashed Cornwall on 8 January, brought down masses of trees and caused power cuts to tens of thousands of homes.

The Kehelland Trust's 16-acre (6.5-hectare) site in Camborne saw damage to three of its growing polytunnels, parts of its glasshouse destroyed and the loss of 12 trees.

Growth manager Sally Pyner said there had been "wonderful offers of help" including free tree surgery, a £5,000 donation and neighbours who had brought in some cake for the team.

The Kehelland Trust helps people with learning and physical disabilities to develop personal and social skills through active participation in the local community.

Planting polytunnels were stripped bare during the storm, with their contents destroyed, and panels and windows of the charity's glasshouse were also damaged.

Pyner said the support the charity had received since taking "a battering" from the storm had "been amazing".

"We've actually been very fortunate, we've got fundraising opportunities and we've have actually had some really wonderful offers of help," she said.

She said tree surgeons had offered to work for free on the site, which had been left "really difficult" to use after fallen trees left it inaccessible.

"Once it's safe, our guys can move in and we've got probably two to three years worth of chipping and sawing and piling up of logs."

She added: "We've actually had an anonymous £5,000 legacy donation come through, which is a life-changing for what we can do."

Pyner said the day after the storm, some of their neighbours came to help out.

"Two children who were unable to go to school that day just came and brought us a big pot of cake so that kept us going in the afternoon," she said.

"A lot of people are offering help, we can't have that many people on site because of our learners and we're working with vulnerable adults, so a lot of the support we're relying on is the financial support."

But she added, "just having the community around us to talk about things and to support us through has been amazing".

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