A Cheshire charity that supports children and young people with disabilities will be able to continue their work after being handed a £7,340 grant.

Central Cheshire Buddy Scheme (CCBS) was founded in 2004 and has grown from 10 children and one club to supporting 136 children and running nine clubs.

The charity applied to the Steve Morgan Foundation for help from their Covid-19 Emergency Fund to fund a support worker to maintain links with families during the coronavirus outbreak and hand out ‘bags of happiness’ to youngsters

Co-founder Stephanie Lawley said: “We know some of our families are already in crisis and Covid-19 could tip them over the edge. The £7,340 from the Steve Morgan Foundation has enabled us to offer extra services to meet the needs of the families that need us the most.”

Explaining how the Central Cheshire Buddy Scheme came about she said: “We found that disabled children were not doing what mainstream children were doing because they were not getting the same opportunities. That’s why we launched CCBS.

“We love being outdoors and being active. Only our Saturday club is indoors. We are lucky enough to have a Steve Morgan Foundation Smiley Bus so we’re always going out all over the place.

“Obviously we aren’t able to go out with the kids because of coronavirus but the need for us is still there. If a family needs food we’ll go to the food bank, if they need fuel vouchers or prescriptions we’ll pick them up.

“The money from the Steve Morgan Foundation will fund a support worker to enable us to maintain our links with the families we support and hand out ‘bags of happiness’. The smiles on the children’s faces and the parent carers say it all. We’re so grateful.”

Steve Morgan, of the Steve Morgan Foundation, said: “Central Cheshire Buddy Scheme do a wonderful job of giving the same opportunities to children and young people with disabilities that mainstream children get. It’s essential that they can still reach out to the families that need them the most.”