Farmer offers respite after tragic links to tower blaze
A WELSH farm has shown support for children affected by the Grenfell Tower disaster by giving them a week’s respite.
Dan Jones and his team at Farms for City Children hosted a stay for the group of 21 children in October at Lower Treginnis Farm near St Davids in Pembrokeshire.
They were brought together by Solidarity Sports, a London charity which supports children from disadvantaged backgrounds, many of whom are now living with the traumatic effects caused by the fire.
Farm school manager Mr Jones said Solidarity Sports had sent groups of children to the farm in previous years, but learned through social media posts that they had lost three of the children who they had supported.
The 34-year-old said: “You think living all the way out here in the smaller cities quite far from London you don’t have a connection. “But then Solidarity Sports’ social media started popping up and you know people who have been affected deeply by it and it really hits home then.”
Many of the children who visited had lost loved ones and classmates, and are living with some of the traumatising scenes they saw on the day of the disaster in June.
Solidarity Sports founder Sean Mendez said: “Three of our children passed away in the tower so it has been a difficult time for us. We are slowly trying to recover.
“Most of the children were affected in some way or another either because they lived near the tower or because they lost friends.
“They are having to deal with bereavement which is a horrendous thing to go through as a child.”
The £12,000 needed to make the trip possible was raised by the Friends of Treginnis.