A MAJOR charity event at a North Yorkshire stately home will this year help children and families who have survived sexual abuse.

The annual NSPCC Duncombe Park Christmas Fair has been held to support the children’s charity for 20 years, and Rachel Fraser, co-chair of the organising committee, said the impact the NSPCC has on children was “phenomenal”, and noticeable on a local level.

She said: “We know the NSPCC does a lot locally for vulnerable children. One of our committee has recently started volunteering for the NSPCC schools service in North Yorkshire because of the exceptional work being done to teach children how to keep themselves and other friends safe.

“This is important in making sure we can do more to prevent child abuse in future, but we’ve also heard about the work the charity does with children who have already been through some horrific experiences in their short lives.”

One of the services on offer is Letting the Future In. Available to children in York and Sheffield, it offers child survivors of sexual abuse specialist counselling for them and their families to ensure they are given the best chance of recovery.

Deborah Radford, manager of the York centre, said children were given control over how their recovery took place, and families were helped to come to terms with what had happened.

“By providing them with the support they need we’re helping them recover, and putting them in a much stronger, healthier position to support their parents. A lot of the time we will also speak to other people in the child’s life to ensure that – whether the child is in school or at home we want them to have someone to turn to, to support them through the process of beginning to get back on track.”

The service is funded by donations, and the Duncombe Park Committee have raised more than half a million pounds over the years.

Karen Storey, committee co-chair, said: “When you hear some of the stories of children, young people and families that have benefitted from the services the NSPCC provides it becomes heartbreakingly clear how important it is to make sure these are available to whoever needs them.”

Tickets for the event, which has a preview evening on Thursday, November 16, and runs on Friday and Saturday, November 17 and 18, are from nspccduncombeparkchristmasfair.co.uk Entry is £10 on the door/ £8 in advance online.