The community of Coverack and St Keverne is pulling together in its fundraising for a teenage horse rider and her family after she suffered a serious brain injury.
Holly Martin from Coverack fell while horse riding on April 12. She was airlifted to Bristol Children's Hospital and has been there ever since, having received surgery to relieve the pressure on her brain and then put under sedation.
Now the community of the Lizard Peninsula is rallying behind the 15-year-old Mullion School student and her family, to help with the expenses of travelling to and from the hospital and staying nearby, as her recovery could take up to a year.
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A JustGiving page set up by Emily Priddis at www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/comeonhollypop more than tripled its £1,000 target in the first hours and has now reached almost £10,000 in under a week.
Now local businesses and individuals are organising events to help top up the total further.
On Sunday the kitchen and bar staff at The Paris Hotel, including landlord Ian Richards, carried out a TikTok dance harbour jump with well wishes for Holly, who was a kitchen porter at the pub.
Collection buckets have been put around, which raised £150 on the first day, with staff also put all their tips in there.
J M Grose & Son’s Cornish Potatoes and Cornish Produce will be donating 50% of the takings from its next local delivery orders to the cause, while earlier last week, before the fundraising appeal was launched, the Trengilly Wartha Inn raised £500 for Cornwall Air Ambulance which airlifted Holly to hospital.
The Three Tuns at St Keverne, where Holly's dad Adam is a firefighter, is donating all the bingo ticket sales from its Bank Holiday Beer Garden Bingo night on May 29, as well as from the same event at its sister pub the Queen's Arms in Breage on May 30, and will have collecting buckets on the night.
Holly is a keen horse rider
Kellie Tripconey of Kellie's Kakes is running a cake raffle and has also donated a voucher to a large raffle being organised by Suzanne Pengilly and Alison Grose, while Dawn's Edible Elegance is creating a 'showstopper' cake for it.
More than 50 raffle prizes have been donted so far and new pledges are being made each day.
Other items available to win include jewellery, psychic readings, fresh flowers, hampers and meal vouchers, while more unusual prizes include a diving session, driving lesson and £100 carpet clean voucher.
A full list of prizes, which is regularly updated along with details of where tickets will be available, can be found on the '#comeonhollypop Fundraising Raffle' Facebook page.
Holly's mum Helen said the family wanted to send a huge thank you to everyone for what they were doing, adding: "I can’t put into words what it feels like to know everyone cares and wants to help."
She said Holly was making small improvements most days, but it was still too early to say what the outcome would be like.
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