A charity which fights for the rights of children with special educational needs is facing future financial struggles after demand soared in lockdown.
Pat Brickley, joint chair of the Norfolk SEN Network, said the organisation was financially stable at the moment because of grants over the past year and a £9,000 donation from Norwich City of Ale in 2019.
But the co-chair, from Eastern Crescent in Thorpe St Andrew, who set up the network in 1987, added the charity which offers advocacy and tribunal support for families, could struggle by the end of this year if it did not attract funding.
She said: "We expected everything to be quiet when things went into lockdown but we have been overrun for requests of support. We have been busy. The majority of the requests were for places in special schools and each tribunal takes five months.
"Information isn't given to parents to start the process. They have to find out things for themselves."
The Norfolk SEN Network is one of 125 charities in Norfolk, Waveney and parts of Suffolk which could have a share of £20,000 from this paper's Cash For Charities campaign.
Readers can collect coupons for the groups up until July 3, which are in the Eastern Daily Press, Norwich Evening News and sister weekly titles.
The coupons have to be collated by individual charities and the £20,000 will be shared between organisations depending on how many are collected for each cause.
Mrs Brickley said any money raised through Cash For Charities would pay for a gazebo to be used to promote the organisation at community events from this September.
Its previous tent was damaged in high winds at the end of last year.
The co-chair, who has three daughters, added: "We need to raise around £50,000 for next year. If we were not here there would be more children struggling in mainstream education."
She was inspired to start the charity after her eldest daughter, now aged 43, was diagnosed with global development delay aged four while the family lived in Trowse.
Mrs Brickley started the group a few years after she struggled for support.
She added the Cash For Charities project was brilliant.
For more information email charities@archant.co.uk.
Which charities have signed up?
1st Attleborough (St Mary's) Scout Group
1st Bungay (School) Sea Scout Group
1st Caister Scout Group
1st Hoveton & Wroxham Scout Group
1st Mattishall Scout Group
1st Snettisham Scout Group
1st Southwold and Reydon Scout Group
1st Wymondham Scout Group
2nd Wells Brownies
469 Lowestoft Air Cadets
Age UK Norfolk
All Saints' Church, Threxton
Allsorts support services CIC, Lowestoft
Asperger East Anglia
Astro Brain Tumour Fund, Hunstanton
Aylsham Older People's Association
Bact Community Transport. Bungay
Beccles Men's Shed
Beccles Lido Limited
Big C
Caister Youth and Community Centre, Caister-on-Sea
Cancer Community Chest, Norwich
Carers Matter Norfolk, Young Carers & Families
Caring Friends for Cancer Mid Norfolk
Charles Burrell Centre, Thetford
City of Norwich Aviation Museum
City WI Norwich
Company of Four, Norwich
Dereham Cancer Care
Dereham Men's Shed
Dereham Theatre Company
Ditchingham Men's Shed
DPA Performing Arts Academy, Gorleston
East Anglian Air Ambulance
East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices
East of England Apples & Orchards Project, Fakenham
Edith Cavell Day Centre, Swardeston
FEED Waveney Community, Lowestoft
First Dereham Scout Group
First Focus, Fakenham
Fresh Start Future Enterprises Ltd, Norwich
Friend in Deed, Cawston
Friends of Clinks Care Farm, Toft Monks
Get Me Out The Four Walls, Norwich
Great Ryburgh Playing Field
Great Yarmouth Gateway Club
Guide Dogs For The Blind - King's Lynn branch
Hanworth with Gunton Memorial Hall
Harleston and District Young Farmers
Headway Norfolk and Waveney
Hear for Norfolk (Norfolk Deaf Association)
Hepworth Recreation Ground, near Diss
Hethersett Jubilee Youth Club
Home-Start Suffolk
Home-Start Norfolk
How Hill Trust
Ingham Village Hall
Keeping Abreast, Norwich
Little Snoring Playgroup
Louise Hamilton Trust, Potter Heigham
Lowestoft Museum
MenTalkHealth, Thorpe St Andrew
Motor Neurone Disease Association - Kings Lynn group
N&N Hospitals Charity
Nansa (Norfolk and Norwich SEND Association)
Narborough and Narford Community Centre
Nelson's Journey
Norfolk Accident Rescue Service (NARS)
Norfolk Citizens Advice
Norfolk Community Law Service
Norfolk Family Carers
Norfolk Federation of WIs
Norfolk SEN Network
Norfolk, Norwich and Waveney Branch of the Motor Neurone Disease Association
North Lynn Methodist Church
North Walsham Play
North Wootton Village Hall
Norwich & District Diabetes Youth Group
Norwich Foodbank
Norwich Marchesi Rotary Benevolent Account
Norwich Samaritans
Oak Grove Community Church, Norwich
Oulton Broad Water Sports Centre
Pakefield Singers
People For Animals Care Trust, Woodrising
People's Foundation of South Norfolk and Broadland
Priscilla Bacon Hospice
River Waveney Trust, Harleston
Rotary Club of Bungay
Rotary Club of Downham Market Trust Fund
RSPCA East Norfolk
Runhall Recreation Ground
Rural Coffee Caravan, Harleston
SENsational Families, Lyng
Silver Road Community Centre, Norwich
Sing Your Heart Out, Norfolk
Southwold Sailors Reading Room
Sprowston Parochial Church Council
St Martins, Norwich
St Mary's Church, Tittleshall
St. John Ambulance
Still Good Food, Bury St Edmunds
Star Throwers CIO, Wymondham
Sue Lambert Trust, Norwich
Surlingham Church & Poor Charity
Swainsthorpe Community Charity Trust
Swan Youth Project, Downham Market
The 389th Bomb Group Memorial Exhibition Hethel
The BUILD Charity, Norwich
The Charing Cross Centre, Norwich
The Clare School, Norwich
The Friends of Kelling Hospital
The Hamlet Charity, Norwich
The Museum of the Broads, Stalham
The Pastures
Thetford & District Dementia Support Group
Third Thorpe Rainbows, Thorpe St Andrew
Three Rivers Talking Newspaper, Bungay
Waveney Enterprises Craft Workshop, Beccles
West Norwich Lions
Whitwell Hall Country Centre Ltd
William Cowper Preschool Nursery, Dereham
Wymondham and Attleborough Talking Newspaper
Wymondham Dementia Support Group
YMCA Norfolk
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here