More than £170,000 has been donated to a charity gardener whose allotment was covered in salt.
Carly Burd, 48, uses the land in Harlow, Essex to help feed people struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.
She has supplied more than 1,600 food parcels to local people.
However, vandals have poured more than five kilograms of salt onto her garden – ensuring nothing can grow.
Carly posted her plight on social media and was quickly inundated with offers of money.
Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker donated, as did Dragons’ Den start Steven Bartlett.
An overwhelmed Carly, a mother-of-three, said:
“I am so grateful and so grateful and literally lost for words.
“Thank you so much everyone, we have worked so hard and it was such a kick to have the damage done, and then for everyone to turn it round and do so much is absolutely unbelievable.
“It just feels like a dream, that’s all I can say.
“It feels like in a minute someone will shake me and wake me up.
“I think, at the moment, if anyone pushes me, I will fall over.
“It’s just a complete dream today.’
Lineker tweeted a message of support to Carly, writing:
“Why would you ever do something like that?”
BBC Dragon’s Den Bartlett donated £2,000.
He said he was “so moved by her story”.
Carly shared the damage to her plot on TikTok.
After finding the damage, Carly shared a video on TikTok which soon went viral.
She said: “I came down on Saturday morning and I just tasted and saw the salt.
“Five kilograms plus had been poured over my garden.
“It wasn’t a kid grabbing it – it was an adult who knew what they were doing.
“I felt like I’d been kicked in the face.
“I have no other explanation for it.
“Who would do that?
“It’s just the most repulsive act I’ve ever known.
“All of the nature that’s in the ground, all the worms, they’re all dead. It has a massive impact.”
“One message I’d like to share to people is: just be kind.”
