A charity for people with learning disabilities has received £1,500 in donations - just two weeks after the Epsom Guardian launched the Shine On Appeal to help save its brilliant services.

The Sunnybank Trust, based in St Barnabas Church in Temple Road, Epsom, is thrilled with the generous donations and messages of goodwill which are flowing in.

Dorothy Watson, manager of the charity’s Kites Club, said: "We are receiving donations via our website, text, the post and people have even slipped them under the office door.

"The messages of support left on our Justgiving page include ‘good luck with your appeal - a very worthwhile cause’ and ‘you do great work, I wish Sunnybank all the best’.

"A new family with an adult daughter with learning disabilities also got in touch since reading about the appeal as they were so pleased to find out about a local service that would support their daughter."

The charity distributed appeal cards and offered face painting at the Cheam charter and rotary fairs, and its volunteers, users and MP Chris Grayling will be out on the streets of Epsom on Thursday, May 30, delivering Shine On postcards, explaining how people can support the appeal, to as many homes as possible.

Last week, the new mayor of Epsom and Ewell, Councillor Colin Taylor, announced that The Sunnybank Trust would be one of his three mayoral charities for the year, and a new fish and chip restaurant and takeaway, Major Plaice, which opened in Ewell Village on Wednesday, May 29, said it will donate its first day’s takings to the mayoral charities.