A COMMUNITY group which has played an integral role in helping a youngster with complex needs has received a significant donation as it continues one of its key projects.

Wellies-On, based in Abberton, specialises in helping people with anxiety, dementia, and serious disability by helping them re-connect with the world around them.

Key to their work in helping people’s wellbeing is the ability of staff to help visitors interact with animals and the outdoors – and one individual they have helped perhaps more than anyone else is eight-year-old Erin Sadler.

Erin, from Colchester, has a series of complex and life limiting health conditions affecting her heart, kidneys and liver and she has been classified as having end stage kidney failure.

But Wellies-On has been integral in helping her, along with her mother and granddad, find something to get excited about.

Guinea pigs in particular have been a huge help to Erin, and Wellies-On is now setting up a wheelchair accessible guinea pig village named Erindale, so significant has been the animals’ positive impact on the eight-year-old.

Ellie Goff, who runs Wellies-On, explained just how much of a difference the guinea pigs have made to Erin, despite the difficulties she endures with her conditions.

She said: “We have to be there to support each other and make sure we have those times when we reconnect – when Erin is here, she is so all-encompassing and on the go and involved in everything.

“There isn’t time to think about what the situation is – it’s living in the moment which is what it’s all about.

“They are living for every moment and Erin really encompasses that.”

Erin and her mother, Helen, ran a fundraiser at Highwoods Square on Saturday selling baubles and woolly snoods as they looked to raise funds for Erindale.

Raising more than £600, all of which has gone towards the project at Wellies-On, Erin’s mother Helen heaped praise on the community group and the difference it has made to her daughter’s life this year.

She said: “We’ve had these visits to Wellies-On and seen how she has responded to the environment, and it has been so good for her mental health.

“It was kind of a no-brainer that this guinea pig village had to carry on – we want to support it in any way we can.

“We are so pleased they came into our lives, because we have had a brilliant summer thanks to them.”

Any donations to Erindale can be made via: bit.ly/3MqkSxe.