Young carers hit by heartless wreckers

7:00am Friday 18th July 2008

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CALLOUS vandals broke treasured pieces of equipment, and also the hearts of more than 100 very special youngsters.

The yobs struck at The Bungalow, Admirals Way, sometime last weekend.

The Bungalow is the base for the Andover Young Carers charity which provides a haven for youngsters who shoulder an immense burden through caring for family members.

The vandals wrecked a trampoline worth around £400 and also smashed plant pots that had been painted by some of the younger carers ready to put sunflowers in.

Project manager at Andover Carers Lorena Burlison said that the original concept was to create a dream back garden for the carers and now the centre piece, which was the trampoline and used daily by the carers, has been damaged beyond repair.

"The money for the trampoline was donated to us through a grant from the Gannett Foundation," she said. Gannett is the parent company of the Andover Advertiser.

"But I'm loath to replace the trampoline for fear of this kind of thing happening again."

The centre is for young people from ages eight to 18 who are looking after their parents or sibling with a disability, or even caring for family members with drink or drug related problems, and offers the youths respite from their responsibilities.

"There were sweet wrappers and drink cartons around the place," added Lorena.

"I cannot believe anyone would do this kind of thing.

"I would like to put security fencing up, but it's having the money to do it.

"I feel absolutely sickened by it. The majority of people around here know what we do so I just don't understand why this happened."

Lorena said The Bungalow had been broken into over the Christmas period, and in the short time that the intruders were there, before the alarms went off, managed to ransack the office.