St Albans mum praises children’s charity

A ST Albans mother has praised a children’s charity which helped to revamp her garden and give her two sick children a safe place to play.

Sarah Beasley, 36, of Butterfield Lane, moved into her new home in February, with her sons Tom, eight, and Bradley, six.

Both the boys suffer with oral motor dyspraxia, hyper mobility syndrome, fine and gross motor skill difficulties and learning difficulties. Tom also has global development delay and mild autism.

Playing outside is a great way for the boys to release some energy but with the garden of their new home described as being “like a jungle”, the family was virtually housebound.

Sarah said: “The garden was like a jungle and there was nowhere safe for the boys to play; there were stinging nettles and rubbish everywhere and it just hadn’t been looked after. I struggle with my health so was unable to do anything with it myself.”

Sarah decided to search the internet to find help and by chance came across the children’s charity, WellChild.

After filling in an application form to be considered for the charity’s Helping Hands project, Sarah was visited by the project manager Lee Trunks.

She explained: “After meeting with Lee I wasn’t expecting anything to be done until at least next year but I got a phone call the next day to say they were coming to do it!”

On Thursday and Friday last week, Lee and a team of volunteers from Whiteoaks PR worked to clear the garden and repair the fences. They also provided an area for a trampoline and a soft flooring zone was also created to allow Tom and Bradley to run around without the fear of tripping.

“It’s making a huge difference already,” said Sarah, “I can’t believe it’s my garden! It’s lovely and having somewhere safe and secure for the boys to play gives me piece of mind.”

She added: “What this charity does is lifesaving; I would never have been able to do this in my wildest dreams but they have done it for us and I’m so grateful.”