Elisabeth Svendsen Trust

This weekend I visited EST Manchester’s Summer Fair. I drove up on Friday morning to meet two families whose children benefit from donkey riding therapy at the centre. I arrived in the car park to find organised chaos – it was a very windy day and there were marquees threatening to take off left right and centre but Lindsay the centre co-ordinator had it all under control and was directing deliveries, porta-loos and gazebo erection quite calmly!

Brooke one of the instructors had a cup of tea waiting for me inside the centre (brilliant service!). I went through to the play area to meet three-year-old Sophie who has a rare chromosome disorder with her mum Claire, and five-year-old Daniel who contracted meningitis when he was 15 months old with his mum Michelle. I love meeting the children and parents who attend the EST centres, everybody has a different story to tell, but the one thing they all have in common is that they all benefit from the magic of donkeys in some way.

When I had finished watching the children ride I was put to work helping set up for the fair, there was a great big jobs list stuck to the wall and for the rest of the day I mucked in putting up marquees and gazebos, putting straw bales around for people to sit on, spreading woodchip on soggy walkways, setting up stalls, cleaning and other odd jobs. Just as we were finishing it started pouring with rain, and I was really pleased when Debbie the centre manager gave me directions to my hotel so I could get my head down for the night.

Saturday morning thankfully dawned lovely and sunny; everybody had worked so hard to get ready it would have been such a shame if the rain had spoiled the day. When I reached the centre at 9am it was a hub of activity with stalls and fairground rides being set up – I cannot believe how many stalls and attractions EST Manchester managed to fit in, we are so lucky down here in Devon that we have oodles of room when we have our summer fair and we don’t have to worry about space issues.

The Lord Mayor of Manchester officially opened the fair at 11am and then he and his wife met Mary their adoption donkey. By lunchtime there were hundreds of visitors enjoying the sunshine and entertainment, a family dog show and dog agility, a grand auction, donkey rides and cart rides, Manchester Mounted Police were in attendance and EST even had “Donkey and Shrek” greeting the younger visitors which was providing great amusement. The atmosphere was buzzing, the queue for the BBQ was huge and I was quite glad to sneak off and take 15 minutes out to treat myself to one of the Indian head massages that were taking place above the main centre. Feeling refreshed I said my goodbyes and headed back to the motorway for the long drive back to Devon. Thanks for a great day EST Manchester!