A COACH with 15 families on their way to Paris for a charity trip to Disneyland had to stop their journey following last week’s terrorist attack.

The eighth Disneyland trip organised by the charity POPSY (Parents of Partially Sighted and Blind Youngsters), was taking a group of 63 people, mostly from Gwent, to the French capital on Saturday, November 14.

The coach made it as far as Ashford but had to turn around when they were told the Paris park would be closed on Monday, November 15 after gunmen opened fire in the streets on Friday evening.

Newport mum, Ceri Morgan-Morris, was on the trip with her family. 

She said it was “shocking” to hear what had gone on in Paris, adding that then the realisation set in that they couldn’t carry on the journey and would have to break the news to their excited children.

Mrs Morgan-Morris was on the trip with her 15-year-old daughter who has cerebral palsy and is a wheelchair user as well four other family members.

She said: “We had been looking forward to the trip for a year as it was our first trip to Disneyland. It was difficult for all the parents to have to break the news to the children.

“We rely on such trips as it is wheelchair-friendly and as the charity organises it all it takes the stress out of it for the parents of disabled children.”

The trips are organised by Tymandra Blewett-Silcock, from Machen, who is the director of the charity.

She set it up as her own daughter, Arwen Poppy, is registered blind, and she wanted to help other families.

It took her 18 months of fundraising to get the £15,000 needed for the wheelchair accessible trip. 

She said it was “heartbreaking” to tell the families that they couldn’t go.

“POPSY trips are so much more than a holiday. It’s a year or more of hard work fundraising, saving, sacrifices, the hope that your child will be well enough to go, finding an insurer who will recognise your child’s condition, then packing tube-feeding equipment and medication over and above what you would normally take,” she explained.

She said breaking the news was “one of the hardest things” she has had to do in the 12 years since she set the charity up.

Mrs Blewett-Silcock added: “But this is nothing compared with the loss of life in Paris.”
She said the families were “amazing and supportive”.

She now hopes to rearrange the trip for next year. But she will have to fundraise around £2,000 to meet the losses incurred.

Mrs Blewett-Silcock worked hard over the weekend to arrange for the group to go to Chessington Resort on their journey home.

To help visit Paypal and donate through popsycha
rity@hotmail.co.uk.  Visit popsy.org.uk, email popsycharity@hotmail.co.uk or find POPSY on Facebook for more details.