A CAMPAIGN to collect cash for improvements to a Bridgwater special school ended in triumph on Thursday (November 16), as celebrity guests were shunned in favour of the real people behind the fundraising.

The Help Penrose Grow appeal, launched by the Mercury and Penrose School, took off earlier this year and was aimed at finding monies for some important additions.

A total of £100,000 was needed to pay for music, sound and physiotherapy rooms as well as new toilets and doors for the building and Bridgwater people really got behind the cause.

And the official opening ceremony was a triumph of people power as young and old came together to celebrate an exciting new stage for the school.

Head teacher Sue Neale paid tribute to the hard work of everyone who had been involved.

"Without the money that came from the people of Bridgwater we would not have had enough for the project," she said.

"The whole day went very well. We decided not to have any big celebrity there because we wanted the people who raised the money to do it.

"There were lots of people who sent donations in and some who had just lost their loved ones thought of us and gave us a lot of money from funeral directors."

Sue explained the sum had been raised from a £5,000 grant, £15,000 through the appeal, a Government allowance of £25,000 and £25,000 the school had saved from the previous year.

Together with £25,000 taken from the current year's budget and £5,000 from Penrose's school funds the £100,000 was finally found.

And fundraising events held in memory of Angela Hale, who died in a car crash, and regular nights at the Enmore Inn, which added to the pot, were honoured on the day with rooms named after them.

"We had Angela Hale's father and daughter cut the ribbon to the physiotherapy room and Bob Kingston from the Enmore Inn cut it for the music and sound therapy room," Sue said.

"The project designer Mike Greaves opened the new doors. He was just so pleased it was done and ready for the first day of term."