A GROUP helping special needs children and their families has been awarded nearly £114,000 after nine years struggling to survive.

The Dorchester Opportunity Group, which offers help to children and their parents from Weymouth to Bridport, has been run on a shoestring budget since it was founded in 1993, having to top up its £6,000 in annual grants with frantic fundraising.

Now staff are overjoyed after the group won a massive boost from the National Lottery's south west regional awards scheme.

The group, which is run from the former Maiden Castle School in the county town, had to find £30,000 each year to be able to continue offering a range of play and educational sessions to children with special needs.

Now staff will be able to expand their range of services after scooping the £113,864 award.

Manager Joan Hickmott said: "It is so brilliant - it is really going to make such a difference to us.

"At the moment we get three formal grants of just over £2,000 each year, to offer sessions to between 35 and 45 children and their families a year.

"We have to do a lot of fundraising. We started out offering one session a week and now we offer six, which is due to the excellent staff here.

"The Prince of Wales School is really very, very good indeed in making its facilities available to us; we are very fortunate in that."

The Dorchester Opportunity Group was started by a group of therapists, who were concerned that there was no provision for pre-school children with special needs in Dorset.

It offers a range of sessions every week, including play sessions and educational sessions for parents, working towards national early learning goals.

It also provides therapy sessions, two swimming lessons each week, music lessons and sessions in the Prince of Wales School's soft play area.

The group has also taken families away for a residential weekend holiday for the last three years.

Mrs Hickmott said: "The weekend is very important because it gives the parents the chance of a break. The parents receive training, knowing that their children are being cared for.

"The majority of the children come from the Dorchester area, but we have had children come from as far as Wareham and Lyme Regis - some of the fundraising helps pay to get them to Dorchester if they are stuck.

"The grant will also help us enhance our staffing levels and develop our family learning programme.

"We have really been funded on a wing and a prayer up until now - we are over the moon."

A south west regional grant was also handed out to the Littlemoor Community Association. The grant, for £92,150, will enable the association to refurbish the Littlemoor Community Centre and re-open it for events, meetings and social occasions.

For further information on how to apply for a grant for your group contact regional enquiries officer Louise Goodridge on (01392) 849701 or visit www.community-fund.org.uk