A mother and her three children have lost “everything except the clothes on their backs” after a fire tore through their home on Tuesday night.
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The Stuarts Point house, which Meagan Thurgood rented with her children (aged 10, eight and three years-old), was completely destroyed in the blaze.
The family are staying with Meagan’s parents as they try to get back on their feet.
Meagan’s mother, Donna Cook, said they were still coming to grips with the situation.
“They’ve lost everything except the clothes on their backs,” she said.
“What do you do when you wake up and realise everything you owned is gone?”
However, Donna said it was a “big relief” that none of the family were harmed.
“There’s some things they’ll be able to replace, but you can’t replace the kids and her (Meagan),” Donna said.
She said the way the community had rallied around her daughter and grandchildren was “just marvellous”.
“It’s been amazing, even here at Stuarts Point people with nothing themselves have been donating,” she said.
“The support that she and the kids are getting is phenomenal.”
An emotional Meagan told the Argus the shock of losing everything was still sinking in: “I don’t know how to get my heard around it, it comes and goes.”
She said the outpouring of help for her family had been “overwhelming”.
“There’s been so much support, which we’re really thankful for,” she said.
Dave Davis, from No Kid Hungry AU, has helped coordinate donations for the family.
He said he’d been “blown away” by the number of people keen to help.
“There's been truckloads of donations, it's amazing,” he said.
Anyone wishing to donate can visit the No Kid Hungry AU Facebook page for further details or visit Macleay Tender Centre.
The Cook family have also started a Go Fund Me page which can be found at www.gofundme.com/please-help-my-sister-and-kids