WORK started this week on a £38,000 project to give a terminally ill Watchet child a space of her own. The Free Press joined forces with Lisa and Paul Clark last July to launch a massive fundraising appeal for a specially designed and equipped extension to their home for their nine-year-old daughter Sophie. Sophie suffers from the incurable Sanfilippo disease, affecting her movement and her joints. And less than a year after people across West Somerset began staging a series of sponsored events and activities - from head shaves to concerts - the builders moved in to start transforming the Clark's home at Doniford. "I really thought this day would never come," said Lisa, pictured. "The amount of money that has been raised by local people is absolutely amazing. "Although we have had a £25,000 grant for this work, we would never have been able to achieve this target without the generosity of all the people who supported Sophie's Appeal. "We are so grateful to everyone." The extension will give Sophie a ground floor bedroom and bathroom, which will be equipped with a range of specialist items including a hydrotherapy pool. It will have French doors that will enable Sophie to be wheeled out, either in a wheelchair or a bed, to a new patio area in the garden. "This extension will be a lifeline for us," said Lisa. "It will give Sophie so much more quality of life, it will be her space and it will also relieve the pressure on the rest of the family, particularly our five-year- old daughter. "We will be able to manage Sophie's illness so much easier and we won't have the danger of stairs as we do at the moment." Sophie's illness means that she is more prone to falling over than normal nine-year-olds and the current stage of the disease also means that she can become quite aggressive. "She has good and bad days, just like anyone else," said Lisa. "But her bad days are quite severe." Minehead-based H.D Lynch are carrying out the work on the extension and expect the project to be completed within 14 weeks. Photo: Steve Guscott.