Hello, I’m Katie and I’m raising funds to help my son Jamie and his family, including three young children aged 5 months, 2 years and 5 years to rebuild their lives after a terrifying series of events that have left them too frightened to return home.

The family have lived in their home for 3 years. At first, they had a good relationship with their nextdoor neighbour, but over time that changed. The relationship deteriorated following complaints about the children crying during the night and what began as disagreements developed into an ongoing period of intimidation and harassment that has caused the family significant distress.

Around 2 years ago, following an argument, damage was caused to cables underneath Jamie’s car. The matter was reported and after that both households stopped communicating, hoping things would settle down.

Sadly, they didn’t.

On Thursday 9 July, the children were playing in the garden with pavement chalk. During their play, Jamie’s 2 year old drew on the garden fence that separates the properties. Although the fence belongs to the neighbouring property, the marks were made with washable chalk. This led to a heated confrontation during which Jamie’s partner was subjected to verbal abuse and a threat was made about teaching their 2 year old son a lesson. Jamie contacted the police.

The following night at around 11:30pm, the family’s door camera captured footage of someone entering their garden and throwing the children’s scooter and bike into nearby bushes.

Less than an hour later, their lives were seriously impacted even more.

Around 12:20am, Jamie’s car was deliberately set on fire. The blaze completely destroyed his vehicle and spread to another neighbour’s car, which was also badly damaged.

The circumstances surrounding the fire are currently the subject of an ongoing police investigation and because of that I cannot comment further on who may be responsible. However, these events have left Jamie, his partner and their children fearing for their safety.

They fled their home at around 2am with nothing but the essentials and have been moving between family members’ homes ever since because they no longer feel safe returning.

Jamie has worked incredibly hard since leaving school and was eventually in a position to afford this car in February this year, through his employer’s salary sacrifice scheme. In addition to losing the vehicle, the children’s car seats and bikes were also destroyed, along with other items they had in the car. More importantly, the family has lost their sense of security.

As parents and grandparents, we are heartbroken and deeply worried for our family’s future. Right now, our priority is helping them find somewhere safe to live where the children can begin to feel secure again.

Their home is a council property, but they do not know whether they will be able to be rehoused quickly, meaning they may have to consider private rented accommodation while they try to rebuild their lives.

We have created this fundraiser to help with the immediate costs of starting over, including:

● A deposit and moving costs for alternative accommodation.

● Replacing the children’s car seats.

● Helping the children replace their bikes and begin to rebuild some normality.

If you are able to donate, no matter how small the amount, it will help this young family take the first steps towards feeling safe again.

If you are unable to donate, simply sharing this fundraiser would mean the world to us.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our story and for any support you can offer.