Ironbridge Rowing Club thankful for support after vandalism

Sandra Towers said the club was "grateful and appreciative" of the support

A rowing club has said the support it has received since one of its boats was vandalised has been "a beautiful thing".

More than £2,000 has been raised since the weekend, when the damage at Ironbridge Rowing Club in Shropshire was discovered.

Sandra Towers, one of the coaches, said the boat had been donated for the junior members to use.

She said the club had received money from people all over the country.

The damage was discovered on Saturday, the day before the coaching team was due to be presented with an award by the High Sheriff of Shropshire for outstanding service to the community.

Ms Towers told BBC Radio Shropshire she arrived to find the boat "had been pulled off and it had crashed onto those bricks there which has smashed the underneath of the boat".

She said seats had also been ripped out and footprints suggested someone had walked up and down it, damaging it further.

The damaged boat will need repairs costing thousands of pounds

The club estimated the damage would cost thousands of pounds to repair.

The boat is one of the larger and more expensive ones used by the club to train younger members, when it is unsafe to use smaller ones in the winter.

"They're much more expensive which is why we have to take such care of them and we don't have many of those at all because of the expense," Ms Towers said.

Setting up an online fundraising page is something Ms Towers had not done before, but she said she had "friends from all over the country donating" and lots of support from local people too.

"We're already looking at what can we do to give back to the community," she said.