A March-based disability charity has been given a helping hand in improving its facilities thanks to the generosity of apprentices and staff from Sanctuary Group.

The maintenance apprentices and employees spent a week at FACET college in Marwick Road giving a number of rooms a new lease of life following accidental damage caused by students’ wheelchairs over the years.

Kris Harrold, FACET manager, said: “The support we have had from Sanctuary both this week and over the course of the last year has been fantastic. To get these projects up and running through fund raising alone would have taken such a long time so we really cannot thank them enough.

“The way that the Sanctuary staff and the students have been interacting this week has been a pleasure to see, there’s nothing more the students like than to lend a helping hand.

“The place really needed brightening up and it looks as good as new now. On behalf of all the staff and students at FACET we would like to say a huge thank you to Sanctuary Group.”

Gillian Calver, Sanctuary’s regional operations manager in the East, added: “The apprentices have done a fantastic job. They really enjoyed being able to put their skills to good use while making a difference to their community and being helped out by some of FACET’s students helped them see who would be benefiting from their hard work.

“It’s important to us to be able to offer our support to a service which is so clearly valued by all those who use it. We hope the students will continue to benefit from it long into the future.”

The group, who received help from some of the students, transformed the centre’s main classroom, painting the room in the charity’s corporate colours, before moving on to give the main reception area a facelift.

One of the halls that can be hired out by the public for private events was also given a makeover.

With a focus on providing training and education to those with disabilities, FACET has more than 125 adult students who attend any number of sessions over the course of the week, receiving specialised tuition in subjects including horticulture and woodwork and gaining skills in a range of areas from catering to maths and English.

The works follow on from earlier improvements carried out by Sanctuary on the centre’s fitness zone last year as part of the group’s work to develop its new affordable housing scheme on Gaul Road.