A YOUNG girl who suffers from a medical condition which means she is often isolated has been making colourful wooden discs with messages of hope.

Grace-Lily Croney, eight, from Leadgate, can go for long periods without seeing her friends at Our Lady and St Joseph’s Primary School.

Ever since lockdown started she has been leaving positive words of kindness for people in her village.

Her mother, Laura Croney, 32, said: “The idea was we would paint rainbows on them and we would give them to people.

“It started off in the block of houses that we live on and we realised we had loads to give out so we painted them and gave them out.

“She has also done some for the fire station and the ambulance stations

“She has also written words of encouragement like ‘laugh’, ‘love’, ‘stay home’, ‘stay safe’, and ‘keep smiling’.

“Some of them have just smiling faces on.”

Grace has complex regional pain syndrome, which affects the nerves in her left leg and means she is sometimes unable to get out of bed.

Her mum added: “Grace knows what isolation is like because she has been poorly

and she knows what it is like when you are not allowed to see other people.

“She did not want other people to feel sad.”