BENARTY Heritage Group helped Caoimhe Potter to smile with a £500 donation to the Drivedeck Fund at Lochore Meadows.

It was one of many generous contributions to the £10,000 cost which will give severely disabled children the chance to enjoy the country park.

Little Caoimhe, who has cerebral palsy and spina bifida, will be one of the beneficiaries and a video showing the six-year-old using the Drivedeck, and the joy it brings her, has proved a big hit on social media.

Tony Zimny, from the heritage group, said: “The instigator was one of our members, Willie Clarke, who met the little girl and her mother.

"Caoimhe is wheelchair bound but what a tremendous personality she has. Ian Laing, the park manager, had brought in an electrically operated wheelchair that could follow a rail, or metallic strip on the ground, and there’s a button the disabled person can push to drive round the park.

“Right now the rail goes from the centre to the jetty but I think the ambition will be to take it right round the park to give people that are severely handicapped the chance to get out there.

“Caoimhe can’t push a wheelchair but, my God, she can operate Drivedeck and she’s away! It’s just great to see that.”

The community shop in Benarty stumped up £5,000 and Tony added: “We thought it was a very good idea and, along with a lot of other people, decided to raise some money to help with the purchase of the item.

“The whole idea of the heritage group is to raise funds and any profits we make goes back to the community, so we were delighted to make a donation.

“One of the things we do is we’re quite active in publications and we’ll be launching five at our open day, at 7pm in Benarty Community Centre on November 1.

“We got a grant from Foundation Scotland to get our annual publication, ‘Beneath the Sleeping Giant’, published so we then sold them, banked the money and gave it to charity.”

Mr Clarke helped to highlight the fundraising appeal in July when he said: “The joy that the Drivedeck allowed the kids as unbelievable and made everyone there on the day decide that all the stops should be pulled out to get the funds raised.

“It is an amazing piece of equipment which is particularly useful for disabled children to allow them to experience all the attractions of the country park close up.”