FUNDRAISING for the brave lady injured at Chard Carnival has now topped £4,400 with the family thanking the ‘heart-warming’ support from the community.

This week saw huge donations made by independent business Just Sew Sentimental, which had been fundraising by selling sunflowers brooches, and Chard Tesco, which gave £500 to the gofundme page.

Sale of brooches took off after Merriott Majorettes adopted it as a sign of support, and around 20 carts at Bridgwater Carnival had large ribbon sunflowers.

Aiyesha Nolan set up the gofundme page with an initial target of £1,000.

She said: “The total has hit way more than expected. It’s amazing to see the community and others come together.

“Just Sew Sentimental made brooches to sell, and half of the proceedings were donated into the gofundme. It is so lovely that they took time out of their day, and worked hard to create hundreds of sunflowers to sell.

“Tesco in Chard raised £500 alone, which was also incredible. It’s just so heart warming to see a community come together. People from all over the country have donated.

“It’s nice to see how kind-hearted people truly are. We never expected it to even hit £1,000 so for it to hit almost £4,500 was just completely overwhelming.”

Eclipse, Newmarket, Gemini, Nunsford Nutters and Masqueraders were among the clubs sporting a sunflower on Saturday.

Susie Evans from Just Sew Sentimental donated £827 on Monday.

She said: “We will have around £60 more to go in as well. It went up beyond any of our expectations.

“I went to Bridgwater Carnival on Saturday and stood in the crowd with a giant sunflower on a stick and I had a great response from people.

“It was lovely to see all the sunflowers that were there.”

Aiyesha added: “We can’t thank everyone enough, for being so kind, sending their love and thoughts, flowers and chocolates, cards etc.

“Thanks to everyone who shared the page, to the News who made it more public, we are genuinely just in awe of how much has been donated.

“Money isn’t everything, but considering the circumstances, this money will go a long way for the family, a very long way.”