A donation of £2,000 has been made to help little Olivia Bowyer learn to speak.

As reported in the Broadcast last week, her family is raising funds for speech therapy for the youngster who was born with global delay and only learned to walk aged four after a lot of physiotherapy. She started school still crawling.

Now the little girl from Great Bardfield is learning to talk. Her words and phrases are limited but she delights in repeating them over and over again.

The money was given to Olivia and her mum Deborah by Great Dunmow Round Table who made the presentation at Olivia’s school, Bentfield Primary in Stansted Mountfitchet on Thursday.

Jon Shepherd, chairman of the Dunmow Round Table, which has supported Olivia with previous donations, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be able to provide Olivia with this cheque for £2,000 to support her speech and language therapy.

“It’s great that we are able to help in some way and causes like this are exactly why we fundraise year-round.”

Deborah said: “As a family, we are so grateful to Dunmow Round Table for their generosity and their continued support for Olivia, we really can’t find enough words to say thank you. They have helped to get her walking and now we hope to start speech therapy to help her talk. We are hoping to find a specialist who has worked with children who have had global delay.”

If anyone would like to hold a fundraising event for Olivia, or help with one, contact Angela.singer@archant.co.uk or call 01799 513053.

To donate, visit www.justgiving.com/OliviaNeedsYou.